The Red Dragon in Halkeginia Chapter 1 (Patreon)

Halkeginia was a land where magic was not merely a curiosity whispered about in old stories, but one of the foundations upon which kingdoms, bloodlines, wars, and entire societies had been built. 

Across the continent, noble families traced their prestige back through generations of accomplished mages, and the ability to command the four recognized elements of Fire, Water, Wind, and Earth often determined far more than simple personal talent. 

A place where magic separated those of noble bloodlines from the commoner, the ruler from the ruled, and in many places even helped decide how a person was expected to live from the moment of birth. 

Among the nations of Halkeginia stood the Kingdom of Tristain, fiercely proud of its traditions, its royal lineage, and the ancient magical heritage upon which its aristocracy rested. It was within this kingdom, surrounded by rolling countryside and far removed from the crowded streets of the capital, that one of Tristain's most prestigious institutions rose behind high stone walls and elegant towers: the Tristanian Academy of Magic. 

Built to educate the sons and daughters of noble houses, the academy was as much a place for cultivating aristocratic discipline as it was for learning spellcraft. Its pale stone towers reached proudly toward the spring sky, banners bearing the crest of Tristain fluttered beneath the warm breeze, and vast lawns stretched between the buildings where students regularly practiced the magical arts expected of those fortunate enough to possess noble blood. 

—-----------

Halkeginia, Tristain, Tristanian Academy of Magic

On this particular spring morning, the lush courtyard of the Tristain Academy of Magic was bathed in the warm, golden light of the early afternoon sun, yet the tranquil atmosphere was charged with palpable tension. Rows of second-year students stood upon the meticulously manicured lawn, framed by the soaring, gothic spires of the ancient academy. 

Today was not an ordinary lesson, nor was it an examination that could simply be repeated after a poor performance. It was the Springtime Familiar Summoning Ritual, one of the most important rites in the life of a young mage. Upon reaching their second year, every noble student was expected to perform the spell known as the Familiar Summoning, calling forth a future companion that would become their familiar. 

In theory, the magic reached across unseen boundaries and found a being uniquely suited to its summoner. Whatever answered that call would then enter into a magical contract with the mage, becoming not merely a servant but a lifelong companion, magical assistant, and reflection of the mage's own nature. Nobles sometimes joked about disappointing familiars, but beneath the humor lay something taken very seriously indeed. 

The creature summoned during this ceremony could say much about the potential, affinity, and future of the mage who called it forth. A humble animal might be perfectly respectable for an equally modest student, while an extraordinary magical beast could become a source of prestige that followed its master for years.

Standing near the edge of the gathered class was Professor Jean Colbert, the instructor responsible for supervising the ceremony. Colbert was an unusual figure among the faculty of the academy. Balding and bespectacled, with a somewhat plain appearance that lacked the intimidating presence cultivated by certain other instructors, he could easily have been mistaken for an absent-minded scholar rather than an accomplished mage. 

Yet beneath his quiet demeanor lay a keen intelligence and a deep fascination with the study of magic itself. Where some nobles regarded spellcraft primarily as a symbol of rank or a weapon with which to demonstrate superiority, Colbert possessed the restless curiosity of a researcher. He wanted to understand how things worked, why magic behaved as it did, and what might exist beyond the comfortable assumptions repeated by generations of noble scholars. That curiosity made him patient with his students, although even his considerable patience could occasionally be tested by the more troublesome members of the second-year class.

But for the moment, however, Colbert had reason to be pleased. The ceremony had proceeded remarkably well.

All around the field stood newly summoned familiars beside their young masters and mistresses, creating a strange and colorful gathering. One student proudly held a large green toad whose bulbous eyes blinked lazily while it sat upon the grass. 

Another attempted to keep a nervous bird perched properly upon his arm while pretending not to notice its repeated efforts to peck at his sleeve. There were snakes coiled contentedly beside boots, owls watching their surroundings with unsettling intelligence, dogs whose tails wagged despite the dignity their owners attempted to maintain, and stranger creatures possessing traits that clearly marked them as magical beasts. The stronger or more fortunate students had summoned creatures that drew appreciative mutters from the class. A sleek salamander radiated enough heat that the grass around its feet had begun to wilt, while elsewhere a winged beast shifted impatiently as its owner basked beneath envious stares. 

Most impressive of all were the rare familiars whose size or magical nature immediately proclaimed the talent of the noble who had summoned them. Even a small dragon was enough to inspire excited conversation, for dragons were symbols of tremendous magical power, and few students could resist imagining what such a familiar might imply about the future of its master.

Colbert slowly looked across the field, mentally checking names against the students gathered before him. His expression carried quiet satisfaction. Every year there were complications of one sort or another, familiars refusing to cooperate, students panicking during the incantation, magical creatures appearing in unfortunate locations, but this year's ceremony had been remarkably successful. No serious injuries, no runaway beasts, and certainly nothing requiring the intervention of the headmaster. By academy standards, that alone made the morning something of a triumph.

"That should be everyone," Colbert finally said, adjusting his spectacles as his gaze swept across the assembled students one final time. "Has every student successfully completed the summoning?"

For the briefest moment, nobody answered.

Colbert might have dismissed the class then and there had a loud feminine voice not immediately risen from among the students.

"Professor! Louise hasn't summoned anything yet!"

The announcement came from a young woman who was difficult to overlook even when she was not deliberately drawing attention to herself. Kirche Augusta Frederica von Anhalt Zerbst possessed brilliant red hair that fell around a mature figure she carried with complete confidence, and the amused expression upon her face made it immediately obvious that she had not spoken out of concern for the classmate she had just exposed. 

Kirche was beautiful, flamboyant, and entirely aware of both facts. Even among nobles she possessed a personality that naturally demanded attention, and her rivalry with one particular student had become familiar enough that several classmates immediately began laughing before they had even turned to see the target of her remark.

Nearly every head on the field shifted toward the same person.

Louise Françoise Le Blanc de La Vallière stood several paces away from the others. She was smaller compared with many of her classmates, possessing a delicate frame that would ordinarily have suited the image of a refined young noblewoman. Her long hair was an unusual shade of pale pink, falling past her shoulders in soft waves, while large reddish-brown eyes now narrowed dangerously beneath the sudden attention.

Beneath the academy's black cloak and uniform stood the third daughter of one of the most distinguished noble families in Tristain. The name La Vallière carried political influence, military reputation, wealth, and generations of powerful magic behind it. Louise's mother in particular was famous throughout the kingdom as a formidable mage whose strength and discipline had made her a figure of admiration and fear alike.

Unfortunately for Louise, none of that prestige had translated into success at the academy for there was a reason some of her classmates had long since stopped calling her Louise de La Vallière and instead called her Louise the Zero for there were zero successful spells ever casted with many doubting that she was even a mage at all. 

The nickname had followed her like a curse ever since her first year. Whenever Louise attempted even basic magic, something invariably went wrong. A simple transformation spell might destroy the object she was attempting to alter. An elemental exercise might produce smoke instead of wind or fragments of stone instead of earth. Most commonly, however, her spells ended in explosions that sent students diving for cover and left instructors staring through clouds of dust at the increasingly furious pink-haired girl responsible.

And Louise knew exactly what everyone was thinking now. ‘They were going to laugh at her again.’ Her fingers tightened around her wand.

She had deliberately remained toward the back of the gathering, quietly allowing the others to perform their summons while hoping, against all reason, that somehow nobody would notice her. It had been a foolish hope, and she had known it was foolish from the beginning. The ritual was mandatory throughout the history of the academy. There was no possibility that she could simply disappear into the crowd and pretend she had already summoned something.

Yet some small part of her had wanted to try anyway. Because this was different from an ordinary lesson. If she failed a spell in class, people laughed for a few minutes and eventually moved on. If she failed this, there would be no hiding it. Everyone else would leave the field beside the creature that had answered their magical call, while Louise would return alone. Her failure would not merely demonstrate her inability to cast elemental spells; it would suggest that even the fundamental magical bond expected of a noble mage was beyond her.

Kirche's announcement shattered what little hope Louise had possessed of escaping notice.

"Oh, that's right."

"Zero hasn't gone yet."

"Maybe she's afraid she'll summon an explosion."

That final comment produced another burst of laughter.

Heat rushed into Louise's face as she lowered her head for the briefest instant, teeth clenched tightly enough to hurt. Anger came easily because anger was safer than embarrassment. Anger was easier to display than fear. The laughter around her felt painfully familiar, and beneath it she could almost hear the disappointed voices that haunted the quieter parts of her memory: tutors questioning her ability, servants attempting not to stare after another failed lesson, classmates whispering behind her back, and the impossible standard represented by her family name.

‘Just ignore them.’ The thought came instinctively, but it was quickly followed by another voice, one shaped by years of upbringing beneath a demanding household. ‘A La Vallière does not shrink before ridicule.’

Louise straightened. Her mother had taught her many things, some through direct instruction and others simply through example. A noble carried herself with dignity. A noble did not allow common gossip or childish mockery to dictate her behavior. A noble stood proudly even when surrounded by enemies.

Whether Louise truly felt brave was irrelevant, she would at least look brave. "What are you all laughing at?" She demanded, lifting her chin as she placed one hand confidently against her hip. "I was merely waiting for my turn."

The laughter weakened slightly, although several students continued smirking.

Louise seized upon the small opening. "There's no point rushing an important ritual," she continued, forcing every word through a confidence she did not remotely feel. "Besides, after seeing what all of you summoned, I thought I should give you some time to enjoy yourselves before I show you what a truly impressive familiar looks like."

A few students stared then someone snorted. Within seconds the field erupted with louder laughter than before.

"You?"

"An impressive familiar?"

"You'll be lucky if anything answers!"

"Maybe she'll summon a second wand so she can make twice as many explosions!"

Louise's eye twitched. Her carefully constructed expression of aristocratic superiority nearly shattered. "Just you wait!" She snapped, pointing her wand accusingly toward the surrounding students. "I'll summon something incredible! Something beautiful and powerful, something stronger than anything any of you could possibly summon!"

"Of course you will," Kirche replied, amusement dripping from every word.

Louise turned toward the redhead with a glare capable of starting a duel by itself.

But Kirche merely smiled back, waiting for her to start anything.

But Professor Colbert simply exhaled softly as he wanted this to end. "That is enough." He did not raise his voice dramatically, yet the authority beneath those words gradually quieted the students. Colbert stepped forward, giving several of the louder offenders a pointed look before turning toward Louise. "Miss Vallière," he said, "the class period is nearly finished. Please perform the ritual."

Louise's stomach dropped. For several seconds she remained perfectly still. ‘This was it. There would be no escaping now.’  She started to step forward into the open space.

Her classmates waited behind her. Colbert watched calmly from nearby. Dozens of familiars shifted across the grass, completely unaware of the significance of what was about to happen.

Louise swallowed as her mouth suddenly felt dry. ‘I can do this.’ She had told herself the same thing before countless spells. ‘This time it will be different.’

Maybe that was true as the Familiar Summoning was not precisely the same as elemental magic. Perhaps whatever strange deficiency prevented her from properly using the four elements would not matter here. Perhaps the ritual would finally respond to her the way magic responded to everyone else. 

And somewhere much deeper, beneath the pride and frustration she showed the world, a far more vulnerable hope whispered through her thoughts.

‘Please.’ She wanted something to answer. It did not need to be a dragon, it did not need to be beautiful, it did not even need to be particularly powerful. Despite everything she had just boasted, Louise would have accepted almost anything if only it proved that she truly belonged here.

Several students instinctively took a cautious step backward.

Louise quickly noticed as her eyebrow twitched again. "Stop doing that!"

A few muffled laughs answered her.

But Louise decided to ignore them. Drawing a slow breath, she raised her wand. The spring wind moved gently through her pink hair, and for a fleeting instant the noise of the field seemed to fade away. Louise focused upon the spell, trying desperately to remember every detail she had studied. The summoning familiar ritual was a magic fundamental to the existence of a noble mage, yet mysterious in its own way. The summoner extended their will outward, calling for the creature destined to become their familiar.

She quickly closed her eyes as words rose to her lips. Yet the incantation that came was not quite the one the others remembered using. "My servant that exists somewhere in the vast universe!"

Several students exchanged confused looks as Colbert's expression changed almost imperceptibly.

Louise continued, unaware of the looks she was receiving. "My divine, beautiful, and powerful familiar!"

Kirche blinked. Someone whispered, "What is she saying?"

Louise either did not hear them or refused to acknowledge them. Her grip tightened around her wand as emotion entered her voice. "I wish and assert from the bottom of my heart—" The air around her seemed strangely still. "Answer my guidance!"

Silence followed. For perhaps one second, nothing happened.

Several students began smirking as Louise's heart sank. ‘No.’ Her wand remained pointed toward empty air. ‘Please, not again.’

A boy somewhere behind Kirche began to chuckle.

Then space itself seemed to twist as an explosion happened in front of everyone that caused many to be blown away while Professor Colbert had to cover his face to hide his eyes from the smoke. Meanwhile inside the explosion, a pale distortion appeared several paces in front of Louise as the wind was suddenly swept outward across the field, pushing grass flat around the growing anomaly and causing cloaks to snap violently behind startled students. The magical creatures nearby reacted almost immediately. Birds spread their wings and cried out. The salamander raised its head sharply. Several smaller familiars attempted to retreat behind their masters.

—------------------------------

Kuoh Park, Evening

Meanwhile, far beyond Halkeginia, another scene was unfolding in a different world beneath the gentle glow of electric streetlights and the deepening colors of an evening sky. 

It was, in countless possible variations across the multiverse, a painfully familiar moment: a boy reaching the end of what he believed to be the best day of his young life, utterly unaware that he stood only seconds away from disaster. 

Kuoh Park had grown quiet as the afternoon crowds gradually disappeared, leaving behind only the distant sounds of traffic, the soft rustle of leaves moving in the evening breeze, and the steady splashing of water from the fountain near the center of the plaza. The park itself was peaceful, almost excessively so, with paved walkways winding between trimmed hedges and carefully maintained flowerbeds while lamps flickered on one by one as daylight faded. 

To Issei Hyoudou, however, none of that mattered nearly as much as the fact that he was standing there with a girl. Not merely talking to one in class, not awkwardly staring from a distance, and certainly not fantasizing with his two equally hopeless friends about some impossible romantic future. He had gone on an actual date and, from his perspective, it had gone unbelievably well.

Issei could barely stop himself from grinning. For someone who had spent years cultivating a reputation as one of Kuoh Academy’s most shamelessly perverted boys, the fact that a beautiful girl had agreed to go out with him had already felt like a miracle. 

When Yuuma Amano had first approached him, smiling sweetly and showing what Issei considered an almost suspicious level of genuine interest, he had spent the following hours alternating between disbelief, triumph, and frantic planning. He had imagined countless disastrous scenarios beforehand. He could say something stupid. He could stare too obviously at her chest. He could get carried away talking about breasts and completely ruin everything before the date even properly started. Worse, Yuuma might realize that she had made a terrible mistake and abandon him halfway through. 

So Issei had prepared himself with what he considered heroic discipline. He had picked out his clothes carefully. He had thought about places they could visit. He had reminded himself, repeatedly and with considerable effort, that a gentleman did not spend an entire date staring at a girl’s chest no matter how powerful the temptation might be.

And against all expectations, he believed he had succeeded as the date had been fun. More than fun, it had been incredible.

They had walked together, talked together, laughed together, and Issei had even managed to keep most of his more embarrassing thoughts inside his head. That alone felt like a personal achievement worthy of celebration. There had certainly been moments when his eyes wandered lower than they should have, and he was reasonably sure Yuuma had noticed at least once, but she had never become angry with him. She had continued smiling, continued walking beside him, and continued acting like she genuinely enjoyed his company.

That had to have meant for something. At least, Issei desperately wanted it to mean something.

Now, as the two of them stood near the fountain at the end of the evening, Issei felt almost light-headed with happiness. The water behind Yuuma shimmered beneath the park lamps, droplets catching the glow before falling back into the basin, and the whole scene seemed absurdly romantic to his inexperienced imagination. He had deliberately chosen to end the date with a walk through the park because somewhere in his mind this was how successful dates were supposed to conclude. A peaceful setting. A beautiful girl. A quiet moment when conversation slowed and both people realized that neither wanted the evening to end.

And perhaps, Issei’s heart began beating faster. ‘Could it happen?’ He tried not to stare at Yuuma’s lips. ‘A kiss?’ The idea alone nearly destroyed what remained of his self-control. His first kiss, the legendary first kiss. He could already imagine tomorrow morning. Matsuda and Motohama would never believe him. They would accuse him of lying, demand proof, and then probably collapse into despair when he described the moment in unbearable detail. Issei nearly laughed just thinking about it.

Then another thought immediately intruded. ‘And maybe after the kiss…’ His gaze threatened to drift lower but Issei forcibly looked back toward her face.

‘No! Control yourself!’ He had made it this far. He would not ruin everything now. ‘Though perhaps if the mood became romantic enough, and Yuuma really liked him, and if she somehow gave permission—’ His imagination briefly supplied the image of his hands touching something soft and magnificent. ‘Oppai.’ Issei’s expression almost became reverent.

Then Yuuma spoke. “Issei-kun.” Her voice was gentle, bringing him immediately back to reality.

Issei straightened. “Y-Yeah?”

Standing before him was Amano Yuuma, the girl who, at least until this moment, seemed almost impossibly suited to every adolescent fantasy he possessed about romance. She had been cheerful throughout the date, affectionate without being overwhelming, and beautiful in the effortless way that made Issei constantly question what someone like her could possibly see in someone like him. Her dark hair framed a delicate face, and the warm expression she had worn for most of the day gave her an innocent, approachable quality that contrasted sharply with the confidence with which she had first asked him out.

Now, however, something about her smile seemed different.

Issei did not notice it at first. Why would he? He was too busy thinking about what she might be preparing to say.

Yuuma folded her hands together in front of herself and tilted her head slightly. “Today was really fun.”

Those words sent another surge of happiness through him as Issei’s shoulders relaxed. “Really?”

“Mm-hm.” Her smile widened. “I had a wonderful time.”

His mind immediately exploded with possibilities. ‘She had fun!’ That alone was enough to make him want to pump his fist into the air.

Instead, he tried desperately to appear composed. “Y-Yeah. Me too.” That was perhaps the understatement of his entire life.

Yuuma looked toward the fountain for a moment, almost as though collecting her thoughts. The pause made Issei even more nervous.

Then she turned back toward him. “There’s something important I want to ask you.”

Issei froze as his thoughts accelerated. ‘Something important?’ His heartbeat suddenly became deafening. ‘Was this it? Was she going to ask me if I wanted to date her officially? Were they already dating officially?’ He was not entirely sure how that worked. ‘Maybe she wants me to close my eyes. Maybe she wanted—’

Yuuma stepped slightly closer. “Could you do something for me?”

Issei nodded almost immediately. “Of course!”

The response came far too quickly, but he did not care. If she wanted another date, he would agree. If she wanted to hold hands, he would agree. If she wanted him to walk her home every day for the next month, he would agree. If she wanted—

Yuuma smiled. “Would you die for me?”

For several seconds, Issei’s mind simply stopped. The sound of the fountain continued behind them as water splashed, leaves shifted and somewhere in the distance, a car passed along the road.

Issei blinked, confused. “Huh?” He stared at her wondering about what she just said.

But Yuuma continued smiling.

He then gave a short, awkward laugh. “Sorry. I think I misheard you.” Surely he had. There was no reason for her to say something like that. His brain attempted to rationalize it immediately. ‘Maybe she had said, Would you lie for me? No, that made little sense either. Maybe she had said, Would you try for me?’ That seemed more reasonable. “Could you say that again?”

Yuuma’s smile changed as the warmth disappeared and a mocking smile took place. Issei’s words died in his throat as the girl standing before him no longer looked embarrassed or affectionate, she looked amused. 

Something deep in Issei’s instincts reacted before his conscious mind understood why as his body stiffened. “Yuuma...?”

Then she changed. At first Issei thought the light around her had shifted but a shadow passed across her body, distorting her outline, and the clothes he had seen her wearing throughout the day seemed to ripple like an image reflected across disturbed water. 

He stepped backward instinctively. “What the—”

Her body stretched as the innocent proportions of the teenage girl he had spent the day with changed before his eyes, becoming taller and far more mature. Her figure filled out dramatically, curves becoming pronounced beneath clothing that was itself changing along with her. The modest outfit Yuuma had worn disappeared piece by piece, replaced by black material that hugged her body closely and exposed far more skin than Issei’s brain would ordinarily have been capable of processing without malfunctioning. Leather-like straps, dark fabric, and an appearance somewhere between a biker and a dominatrix completed the transformation.

Under normal circumstances, Issei would have completely lost his ability to form coherent thought but this was not a normal circumstance. Because the face looking back at him no longer belonged to Yuuma Amano.

In its place stood a breathtaking woman whose beauty had become sharp rather than gentle, predatory rather than inviting. Long dark hair framed a face carrying an almost contemptuous amusement, and her eyes watched him with the casual indifference of someone who no longer felt any need to maintain a disguise.

Issei could only stare. “What...”

Then came out the two enormous black shapes erupted from her back with feathers spread outward into the evening air. For a moment they seemed to swallow the light behind her, as her broad black wings stretched magnificently from her body like something torn directly from ancient religious paintings.

Issei’s mouth opened as nothing came out. His brain desperately tried to interpret what he was seeing. ‘Is this Cosplay?’

No, that was impossible as everything looked so realistic as the wings had moved. He could feel the air displaced by them.

Some absurd corner of his mind attempted another explanation. ‘Is she an Angel?’ But angels were supposed to have white wings.

The woman lifted one hand as purple light gathered above her palm. The glow then lengthened, condensed and sharpened. Within moments, what resembled a spear had formed in her grip, constructed entirely from brilliant violet light. It crackled faintly with energy, illuminating her face from below and casting unnatural shadows across the pavement.

Every fantasy Issei had entertained only seconds earlier disappeared as fear replaced them. His body finally understood what his mind had been refusing to accept.

This woman was dangerous.  His legs wanted to move as he tried to step backward. “Y-Yuuma... what is this?”

The woman’s smile widened. “Yuuma?” She almost seemed entertained by the name.

Issei’s stomach twisted. “What are you?”

She looked at him as though killing him were simply something that needed to be done before moving on with the rest of her evening. She then thrust forward. The glowing point aimed directly for his chest, where his heart would be.

Issei saw it coming as there was no time to dodge. No time to understand. No time even to scream properly. 

Then the world behind him tore open. A brilliant green light erupted without warning causing Raynare’s eyes to widen.

Issei then felt something pull at his back as space itself seemed to seize him. “What—?!” His feet was lifted from the ground.

The spear passed through the space his chest had occupied only an instant earlier while Issei shouted as he was violently dragged backward. He twisted instinctively, catching the briefest glimpse of what had appeared behind him: a circular distortion of swirling green light, its surface rippling like liquid suspended vertically in the air. 

Issei had no idea what he was seeing. He only knew he was falling into it. “WHAT THE HELL IS THIS?!” His fingers clawed uselessly at the air.

For one absurd second, his gaze locked with the woman who had called herself Yuuma. And at the same time Raynare looked genuinely surprised. That, more than anything else, told Issei this was not part of her plan.

Then the green light swallowed him and the portal collapsed.

Silence returned to Kuoh Park as Raynare remained perfectly still. Her spear of light hovered in her hand. The fountain continued splashing behind her as though nothing had happened.

For several seconds, she simply stared at the empty patch of pavement where Issei Hyoudou had been standing before her eyes narrowed. “What...the hell?” Confusion slowly gave way to irritation. “What happened?”

She searched the area with her heightened senses, expecting perhaps some devil interference. The Gremory and Sitri heiresses were the rulers of Kuoh. Maybe they had somehow intervened but no, Raynare would have recognized demonic power and this had not felt demonic nor had it felt holy. The energy had been unfamiliar.

Her grip tightened around the spear.

The mission had been straightforward. Eliminate the human boy. Destroy the possessor of the Sacred Gear before it could become troublesome. Instead, the target had vanished through some unknown spatial phenomenon seconds before death.

Raynare stared at the empty air. Her irritation deepened. Somewhere far beyond anything she could sense, Issei Hyoudou was being hurled through a boundary no fallen angel had ever crossed.

—--------------------------------

The explosion that had accompanied Louise’s summoning spell rolled across the courtyard with such force that it sent several students stumbling backwards and nearly knocked the less prepared familiars off their feet. 

Smoke spread thickly through the spring air, turning the carefully tended academy lawn into a haze of drifting gray and brown while dirt, bits of grass, and the smell of scorched earth filled the space where Louise had been standing. The cheerful mood of the ceremony shattered instantly into confusion and irritation as students coughed, waved smoke away from their faces, and struggled to recover their dignity. Cloaks were dusted off with offended motions, polished shoes were inspected for dirt, and the more prideful among the young nobles looked as though the real crime was not the explosion itself, but the indignity of being covered in soot in front of their peers. Familiar creatures hissed, croaked, fluttered, or attempted to hide behind their summoners, while complaints rose from every direction in a disorderly chorus. 

Some shouted Louise’s name in anger, others barked accusations that she had done it again, and more than a few, after making sure they were unharmed, burst into mocking laughter at what they assumed had been yet another humiliating failure from the notorious Louise the Zero.

Louise herself stood frozen where she had cast the spell, her wand still raised though her arm had gone stiff with shock. A faint tremor ran through her slender body as she stared into the wall of smoke before her, too afraid for several heartbeats to move, speak, or even breathe properly. The confident mask she had forced onto her face was gone now, stripped away by that terrible familiar sensation of failure she knew all too well. For one agonizing instant, she was no longer the proud daughter of House La Vallière or the haughty noble girl who had boasted she would summon something magnificent. 

She was simply Louise: a frightened young girl standing in front of her classmates, waiting for the proof that she had once again failed at something all other nobles considered basic. Her lips parted soundlessly as her chest tightened. ‘Another explosion... was that all it was?’ The thought stung harder than any open laughter. 

Around her, the jeers and groans blurred together. Some students were angrily telling her to watch what she was doing, others mocked that at least she had succeeded in summoning smoke, and still others suggested that perhaps destruction itself was the only servant willing to answer Louise de La Vallière’s call. Every word dug at her pride, yet Louise barely heard them through the pounding of her own heart.

Then, from within the smoke, someone coughed.

It was not the sharp bark of a toad, nor the cry of some beast, nor the choking protest of a classmate who had strayed too close. It was unmistakably human. 

The sound caused the entire courtyard to hesitate. One by one, voices fell silent as heads turned back toward the center of the blast. Even Professor Colbert, who had raised an arm and partially turned away to protect his eyes from the initial burst, slowly lowered it and peered through his spectacles at the smoky haze with sudden, intense focus. 

The drifting cloud began to thin, stirred by the spring wind, and the vague shape within it gradually became clearer until at last a figure emerged standing where no figure had been a moment before. 

He was not a monster, not a dragon, nor some magical beast of note, but a boy, an ordinary-looking teenaged boy with messy brown hair and the startled, half-breathless expression of someone who had been violently thrown from one world into another. 

He looked about Louise’s age, perhaps slightly older, and his clothing immediately marked him as something utterly foreign. He did not wear a cloak, noble attire, or even anything remotely familiar to the students of Tristain. Instead, he wore strange fitted garments of soft fabric, plainly crafted yet unlike any style known in Halkeginia, clothes chosen for comfort and appearance rather than courtly status. To the students of the academy, he looked bizarrely underdressed.

Issei Hyoudou bent slightly forward and coughed again, one hand braced against his knee as he drew in a proper breath. His lungs still felt tight from the smoke and from the shock of being yanked backwards through that impossible green light. His heart was pounding hard enough to hurt, and for a few seconds he could think only in fragments. 

‘I’m alive. What the hell was that?’ The image of Yuuma or rather, the thing pretending to be Yuuma, raising that glowing purple spear was still burned into his mind with terrible clarity. He could still see her expression, cold and almost amused, and still felt the violent pull that had seized him before that spear could pierce his chest. 

It took several moments for his panicked thoughts to slow enough for him to actually look around, and when he did, the confusion only deepened. He was no longer in Kuoh Park. The fountain was gone. The trees and paved walkways were gone. In their place rose a vast stone structure that looked like some sort of castle he would have expected to see in fantasy games or historical dramas.

Towers rose into the sky. Enormous walls enclosed broad courtyards. Beyond the academy grounds he could see wide stretches of untamed land rolling into the distance, greener and more open than anything surrounding his familiar urban life back in Japan. It was as though someone had reached into reality, grabbed him by the collar, and dropped him directly into a medieval European fantasy setting.

Then he noticed the crowd. Dozens of boys and girls stood staring at him from across the lawn, all dressed in black cloaks and old-fashioned uniforms, each one looking as stunned by his appearance as he was by theirs. 

The first thought that entered Issei’s mind was not especially noble. ‘Foreigners.’ The second thought was even less helpful, because despite the confusion, fear, and lingering terror from nearly dying, Issei was still Issei Hyoudou. A great many of the girls in front of him were beautiful, but one stood out immediately: a tall red-haired girl with a mature figure so impressive that his eyes locked onto her chest for a full second before his survival instincts finally reasserted themselves. 

‘Whoa... incredible oppai— no, no, focus! Focus!’ He shook his head sharply, almost as though physically throwing the thought away. Something had tried to kill him. He had fallen through a green portal. He had landed in a place that looked like a fantasy novel. Now was not the time to admire foreign breasts, however wondrous they might be.

“Where am I?!” Issei demanded, turning in a circle as he looked between the students and the castle. “What happened?! What is this place?!”

To him, the question sounded perfectly clear. To the gathered students, it was incomprehensible nonsense.

The strange boy had opened his mouth and unleashed a stream of utterly unintelligible sounds unlike any language they had ever heard. There was rhythm to it, certainly, and it did not sound like the growls of a beast or the cries of a familiar. It sounded like speech. But if it was speech, then it belonged to no tongue taught in Tristain or spoken anywhere in Halkeginia that they recognized. 

Mutters quickly spread through the group. Some students frowned in bafflement. Others exchanged amused or suspicious looks, wondering if this was some elaborate trick. 

Meanwhile, Issei stared as the students began responding all at once, only to discover to his growing alarm that their words were no more understandable to him than his had been to them. What reached his ears was a blur of strange syllables and elegant-sounding gibberish, spoken in tones ranging from indignant to incredulous to openly mocking. It was a real language, obviously, and yet to Issei it might as well have been a fantasy RPG script brought to life.

Louise and Professor Colbert were perhaps the most stunned of all. Louise could only stare at the brown-haired boy before her, her mind struggling desperately to make sense of what she was seeing. A human. She had summoned a human. Not a magical beast, not a spirit, not some legendary creature beyond the knowledge of the academy, but a plainly dressed common-looking human boy who spoke a language she had never heard in her life. This had to be a mistake. It had to be. And yet he was standing exactly where the distortion had formed, exactly where her spell had reached. 

Colbert, meanwhile, had gone very still. Unlike the students around him, whose first instincts were mockery and gossip, his scholarly mind had immediately seized upon the profound impossibility of what had occurred. Summoning a familiar was one thing. Summoning a human being from some unknown and perhaps unimaginably distant land was something else entirely. His eyes gleamed behind his spectacles, not with ridicule, but with astonished curiosity.

Then one of the male students laughed. The sound broke the tension like a stone thrown through glass. “Well, of course!” He called out, unable to contain his delight at the absurdity of the situation. “Louise actually did it! She summoned a commoner!”

That was all it took as the courtyard erupted into laughter.

“A commoner? That’s her familiar?”

“She couldn’t even summon a proper beast!”

“Did you pay him to pretend?” Another boy jeered. “Maybe he was hiding in the bushes waiting for his cue!”

“That’s perfect for Louise,” One girl added between giggles. “Not even a magical creature would answer her, so she got some poor wandering peasant instead!”

Even Kirche covered her smile with one hand, her eyes shining with merciless amusement as she looked from Issei to Louise and back again. “Really, Louise,” She said, her voice velvet-soft with mockery, “if you wanted attention that badly, you could simply have said so.”

Louise’s shock finally gave way to outrage. Her face flushed red, and she stamped a foot so hard against the earth that it nearly would have been comical under other circumstances. “Don’t be ridiculous!” She snapped, glaring first at the laughing students and then at the bewildered boy as though his very existence were a personal insult. “This must be some sort of mistake! There’s no way he’s my familiar!” She turned sharply toward Professor Colbert, seeking the authority she wanted him to provide. “Professor, I demand a repeat! I’ll try the summon ritual again!”

But Colbert simply adjusted his spectacles, still studying Issei with thoughtful intensity. When he finally replied, his tone was calm and firm, the voice of a teacher stating an unpleasant fact that would not be changed simply because his student disliked it. “No, Miss Vallière,” he said. “A familiar summoning is not a matter one simply repeats because the result is unexpected. Whatever answered your call has done so in accordance with the ritual. However unusual this may be, you did summon him. Therefore, this is no mistake in the formal sense.” He paused briefly, then added with quiet finality, “And if he is the one who answered your call, then he is now your responsibility. As his master, you must complete the contract. Such is the tradition.”

Louise stared at him in dismay. For a moment she seemed too horrified to respond properly. Her eyes snapped back toward Issei, who still stood in the middle of the courtyard looking lost, out of place, and far too human for her liking. He was not even dressed properly. His clothes were strange, his language incomprehensible, and worst of all, he was clearly a commoner or at least, he lacked every visible sign of nobility. 

The idea that she, Louise Françoise Le Blanc de La Vallière, daughter of one of Tristain’s most respected noble houses, should be expected to seal a familiar contract with a strange boy before the eyes of all her laughing classmates was almost unbearable. Yet Colbert’s words left little room for protest. 

Around her, several students had already quieted in anticipation, curious to see whether she would obey. Pride, humiliation, and stubbornness warred across Louise’s face before at last she clenched her jaw and marched forward, every step stiff with indignation.

Issei, meanwhile, noticed the small pink-haired girl striding toward him with the expression of someone about to perform a deeply unpleasant duty. He blinked in surprise. Up close, she looked younger than some of the others, small, delicate, and almost doll-like in build, yet carrying herself with the rigid posture of someone determined to project authority far greater than her size suggested. 

Her long pink hair framed a flushed, annoyed face, and her eyes, though beautiful, were narrowed in a way that suggested he was currently the source of every problem in her life. She spoke sharply, her tone imperious, but the words were complete gibberish to him. Whatever she said sounded less like a greeting and more like a command. 

Issei instinctively pointed to himself. “Uh... me?” he asked stupidly, then added in a strained voice, “Look, I don’t know what’s going on, but can somebody please explain where I am?”

Louise, hearing only incomprehensible babble in return, narrowed her eyes further. “You should be grateful,” She declared coldly, though naturally Issei understood none of it. “To be summoned by a noble such as me is an honor. Do not make this more troublesome than it already is.” Then, taking a breath and forcing her irritation down enough to perform the rite properly, she raised her wand and spoke the words of the contract spell with ritual clarity. “My name is Louise Françoise Le Blanc de La Vallière. Pentagon of the five elemental powers; bless this humble being, and make him my familiar.”

Before Issei could do more than stare blankly, Louise stepped forward and pressed her lips to his. The kiss was brief, formal, and utterly devoid of tenderness. It was nonetheless enough to freeze the already bewildered boy in place.

His eyes went wide. His thoughts shattered into stunned disbelief. When Louise stepped back, cheeks pink with humiliation and anger, Issei remained staring at her as though his mind had simply given up on reality altogether. 

“W-What?!” He blurted, touching his lips with his fingers. “She kissed me?! What kind of bold country is this?! Who is this tiny girl?!” His face reddened all at once, confusion temporarily overtaking fear. Of all the impossible things that had happened in the last few minutes, being nearly killed, getting swallowed by a green portal, arriving in a castle courtyard full of foreigners, the one that truly broke his brain was the fact that a small pink-haired stranger had marched up to him and kissed him without warning.

Then agony exploded through his left hand. It began as heat, sudden and sharp, before intensifying into a searing pain so fierce that Issei cried out and doubled over, clutching at his arm. 

The back of his hand burned as though a branding iron had been pressed directly into his flesh, and beneath the skin something unnatural seemed to carve itself into him with merciless precision. Faint glowing runes emerged one after another, etching across his hand in a pattern neither he nor the watching students could yet fully understand. Issei gasped and stumbled, every nerve in his body screaming. 

The shock of the day crashed into him all at once: the terror in the park, the betrayal, the portal, the incomprehensible crowd, the kiss, and now this unbearable pain. Somewhere through the haze he heard Louise speaking to him, and though her voice had lost some of its edge, her words still meant nothing to him.

“Calm down,” Louise said, trying and not entirely succeeding to sound reassuring. “This is simply the contract being completed. The bond is taking hold. It will pass.”

But to Issei, her explanation was just more meaningless foreign noise. The courtyard then tilted and the voices around him became distant. His vision blurred as the pain in his hand throbbed in time with his racing heartbeat. And with that, Issei Hyoudou collapsed unconscious at Louise’s feet.

Done. Tell me what you think of the first chapter? Give suggestions and any advice for what should happen next?