Chapter 14: [Secrets and Seekers]
//Planned Harem: Louise, Siesta, Kirche, Henrietta, Agnés, Tabitha, Tiffania, Cattleya, Éléonore//
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Louise and Ordell had found themselves in front of two large wooden doors with metallic handles. On each of the two large doors was a heavy iron doorbell. It didn't take a genius to guess that this is where the headmaster Osmond resides. Ordell also knew this because Louise and Jean Colbert said so, but you get the point.
Quite a pretentious entrance to an old man's office, but so was just about everything else in a school for nobility so Ordell wasn't really surprised. Colbert opened one of the doors for them, and the three humbly made their way inside.
Immediately upon entering, Ordell noticed two people were inside. One was an elderly man with a long white beard smoking a pipe, he sat behind the largest and most important-looking desk Ordell has ever seen, definitely the headmaster. The other person sat to the side behind their own desk, a reasonably beautiful green-haired secretary by the looks of it. She also had glasses, +10 points.
Gauging their power was not difficult, and Ordell was pleasantly surprised by their strength. The green-haired woman was definitely an expert in earth-based magic, while Osmond was... difficult to read. His "soul fire" was condensed, quite heavily so into a single white sphere roughly the size of his heart. While the size may not be so impressive at first glance, the fact that he could control his power to such an extent while making its element pretty much impossible to distinguish was... amazing. Truly a master of his craft, as every headmaster should be.
Jean was very much the same, however, his soul fire still had that "warmth" and "brightness" associated with fire-based mages, so at least his affinity was easy to discern. The green-haired woman appeared quite weaker than them, but not by much.
Still... nothing that Ordell can't put 6-feet under.
"Ah, Miss Valliére and her familiar are here!" the old man happily chimed as he took a puff from his smoke pipe and placed it down onto the table where a white mouse suddenly appeared and took the stress-relieving tool away.
Ordell guessed it was the old man's familiar. Unimpressive but quite good for spying.
"Please, take a seat, both of you."
The two teens took a seat, each one sitting on one of the large wooden chairs placed in front of the headmaster's desk. The secretary only looked at them from the side, not so much as giving them a greeting or anything. Well, their business was none of her business, so that's fine. Professor Colbert stood on the left side of Osmond's desk with a light smile.
"Headmaster, why are we here?" Louise tried sounding stoic, but she still came off as nervous, something that the older man chuckled at.
"Oh, nothing major Miss Valliére! You're not in trouble if that's what you wish to know," Louise let out a low sigh, she almost panicked, thinking that Guiche took his loss a little too personally.
"As you may know, summing a human, or in this case humanoid..." Colbert's voice trailed off as he looked at Ordell with an uncertain and a slightly apologetic look, but the familiar only nodded it off.
"It's fine, it's fine~" the horned man waved off Colbert's thoughtful choice of words with a carefree smile.
"Yes, as you know Miss Valliére, summoning a human is a rare occurrence. Extremely rare to the point that we have never seen something quite like it," a small, proud smile appeared on Louise's adorable face, something that Ordell would definitely tease her about later.
"So we'd like to ask you some questions, you know, for records and such! People do want to document the most bizarre and memorable moments of their life after all."
Both the master and the familiar could see their reasoning, it was after all a rare occurrence. Documenting the events that transpired was the obvious course of action for them so that they could be better prepared should such a thing occur again.
"Okay, ask away I guess," Ordell wasn't particularly disinterested in the conversation, but after what he promised Louise this morning, his mind was a little preoccupied.
"Yes, well, we believe that the questions we ask of each of you will be quite... personal. As such, I'd like to request your presence to be here one at a time so that you can feel free to say whatever you wish," again, not an unreasonable argument made by Jean Colbert, even if a little redundant in Louise's and Ordell's case.
Louise already trusted her familiar, a lot, but there were things far too embarrassing to say in front of him. Things that would make her blush harder than a tomato, so the small tidbit that Professor Colbert thought of in his neverending thoughtfulness was nice.
"Should I wait outside then?" it would seem that Ordell was giving his master the option to go first.
Louise didn't mind and meekly nodded in response, the headmaster and professor doing the same. Ordell sighed lightly as he stood up from the surprisingly comfortable chair and quickly scurried away to leave.
"Miss Longueville, if you would please?" naturally, headmaster Osmond had asked even his secretary to leave, and she obliged with a slight bow before leaving immediately.
Ordell had decided to wait for his turn by the entrance to Osmond's office, leaning against the wall just beside the wooden door. He could technically hear what was being said inside, but should he? As a familiar and a... dare he says, lover, he should respect Louise's privacy... Nah, he wants to hear her opinion of him!
He also gave a slight wave to the passing secretary that didn't send one back, what a bitch!
[FAMILIAR INTERVIEW TIME!]
[Featuring: Louise Françoise le Blanc de la Vallière!!!]
"Now that we have some privacy, we'd like to ask you some questions regarding the summoning of your familiar down to his personality and unique... characteristics."
Louise nodded, taking a note of the words professor Colbert chose to use. The man really was a little bit too considerate at times. Osmond took the lead with the first question, and already Louise had no real answer.
"When you summoned your familiar-"
"-Ordell, his name is Ordell."
"...Yes, when you summoned Sir Ordell, what kind of a ritual did you exactly go through? Professor Colbert has informed me that you have altered the chant slightly."
"Yes sir, I admit, I was... nervous, very nervous at the time and... I couldn't stop my mouth from running in the heat of the moment."
"Can you describe any particular feelings you might have felt in those moments before Ordell has appeared before you?" this time, the professor chimed in.
"Not anything in particular. It felt like every other spell I failed up until then..."
The two gave the pinkette looks of sympathy, they were all too familiar with the destructive nature of her spells and the subsequent ridicule her peers sent her way because of it. Alas, they had to move the conversation along.
"What of the moment that Ordell appeared before you?"
Louise gained a small smile, reminiscing back to the most breath-taking moment of her life up until that point, "...It was... amazing. I was really happy that I managed to actually summon something, someone... I didn't actually expect to summon so much as a flea, but... I am happy with what I've got."
"We are glad to hear that. Now, this question might be a bit personal but... Do you engage in any... explicit activities with Ordell?"
Louise's face exploded in the colour red when her ears picked up Osmond's question, Colbert cleared his throat as a manner of way to get rid of his own flustered feelings. The question was very intrusive, as was the standard with headmaster Osmond, but, this time it was actually necessary to a certain degree.
Louise began to twirl her hair around her finger, "...A-A little bit... We k-k-kiss and stuff..."
Osmond gave a sheepish chuckle at Louise's embarrassment, Colbert feeling that the awkwardness would soon be far too much for both him and Louise to bear decided to speak up, "What about Ordell's behaviour? Anything worth noting?"
Louise blinked once and for the first time since the conversation started, adopted a thinking pose with her thumb beneath her chin, "...He's..."
The two older men leaned in slightly, Louise's voice started off really low, so they thought that the information she wanted to share was either really intrusive or really embarrassing.
"...Really horny."
...The two men nearly fell down to the floor from the sudden bombshell Louise decided to throw onto them. Not quite what they were looking for, not even close, but it was... something? They were more so looking for any "trouble in the paradise" as they say, since Ordell is much more of a thinking, feeling human than any other familiar out there right now. To their knowledge, at least...
"T-Thank you Miss Valliére, I believe that is all that we need for now!" Louise nodded with a small blush and hopped off the comfy wooden chair, leaving the two men in silence for a few moments to come.
[FAMILIAR INTERVIEW TIME!]
[Featuring: Ordell!!!]
This time, Ordell found himself sitting in his master's previous spot on the comfy wooden chair in front of the two older men. He was very happy with what he managed to overhear, although that horny comment left him chuckling. Louise was right, he was damn horny as hell... He should keep his hormones in check better.
"If I might, I'd like to ask you a few questions that have been plaguing my mind since you were summoned, Sir Ordell," it would seem that professor Colbert would be the instigator of this conversation.
Ordell shrugged his shoulder and nodded along, giving the professor the green light for his questions.
"What are you?"
And immediately, Ordell replied without a shred of hesitation, "A familiar."
"No, I meant race-wise. I've never heard of people with horns quite like yours."
Ordell actually lightly chuckled, he was already expecting such a question. It was a shame however that he himself had no answer. He wasn't, and then, he just... was... Actually, that is a lie. The inner workings of universal infinity, The Madness, are not a foreign construct to him. He is a creature born of chaos within order, infinity given finite form by the request of a favourite child.
Of course, this was information he will have to withhold for now, as the implications of such knowledge would create far too much turmoil for him and his master, "Dunno. All I can tell you is that I am the only one of my kind. Trust me, you won't find another me anywhere."
Ordell wasn't a creature born through normal means, like breeding and such. He was a corporal creature that bore the semblance in terms of appearance to what Louise desired the most at that moment. A beautiful, powerful and wise familiar. A friend and a future lover.
Colbert understood the complicated situation Ordell has been placed into. If he truly is the last of his kind, then that would mean that all of his descendants would only be half-bloods. Therefore, his death sometime in the hopefully distant future would mark the passing of his race. Although, why exactly Ordell couldn't tell that he was the last one of his race puzzled Colbert slightly. Maybe he was alone since birth and therefore had no knowledge of his racial heritage?
"What of your life before you became Miss Valliére's familiar?" Osmond fired another reasonable question before Colbert could, but it was nothing that was unexpected by any means.
"I didn't have one."
This statement left the two older men pondering on the implications, "...Didn't have one?"
The two questioned at the same time, a notion which made Ordell lightly chuckle as he crossed his arms over his chest, "Well, in one moment, there was nothing. And in the next, there was me. Then, I heard a voice. A voice of my master. The rest is history."
This did send off a few red flags in the older men's minds, but it fundamentally answered one thing; Ordell is not of this world. At least, that was the most plausible explanation. Louise actually creating a living creature instead of summoning one was an impossibility of the highest degree, that much was certain.
But that left massive questions that they believed not even Ordell could answer, such as how he came to be. They hoped he could at least answer the final question, a question that was equally as important as all the previous ones.
"You've demonstrated a certain amount of magical aptitude in your duel with Sir Guiche. What sort of magic did you use and how did you learn it?"
Ordell appeared to have been waiting for this one specific question as he leaned back in his chair and adopted a condescending smirk.
"What is magic?"
The two older men stared at him with puzzled gazes, clearly expecting him to go on with his explanation that is undoubtedly going to be some manner of a speech now. Oh well, Osmond was a big fan of those in his books!
"If magic is a strict cause followed by a self-determined effect then what I do is indeed magic. But, there's more to magic than just that, right?"
Ordell took no small amounts of pleasure from the attention he was receiving, he really did want to go on a grand speech like this ever since he became Louise's familiar.
"Why do fish breathe underwater? Why does a salamander breathe fire? The biological process itself is not magic, is it? It's the act of unleashing something unnatural, like breathing fire or levitating without the use of wings. The ability to do these incredible feats is engraved into the very being of the environment. Yet, not everyone can do it. Why do only nobles have access to magic? Why can't commoners do it? Natural selection? Or a... blessing, of sorts?"
Ordell's voice trailed off towards the end, the two older men were listening intently to every word he said. He smirked more profoundly as moved one of his hands to the side, having the open palm of his hands pointed towards the roof.
"Magic... is just another word for a supernatural phenomenon you can't explain through science."
A sphere appeared above Ordell's palm, white in colour and really bright, so bright that it couldn't be looked on directly. Slowly, it took a very distinct shape, and Ordell's eyes glowed crimson yet again.
'Hyperdimensional Connection confirmed.'
'Accessing item assembly...'
'Item assembly accessed.'
'Beginning raw material transfiguration: oxygen -> steel, iron, lead, holy silver, titanium nitride...'
'Assembly successful.'
In Ordell's hand formed the heavy and elongated body of a familiar handgun, Hellsing ARMS .454 Casull Auto. A very powerful and unwieldy hand cannon with seemingly unlimited ammo. Both Osmond and Colbert gasped slightly as the item took shape, a transfiguration of this level was already considered Square-level magic, but weapon creation altogether, not to mention the complex construction would place Ordell very high on the pyramid.
"What I just did, you'd call this magic. But, your magic follows your own strict rules. Matter can only be transformed into another type of matter, and the power of spells is purely dependent on the willpower of the caster. However, the power that I wield is... different."
"I am Ordell. I am the familiar of Louise Françoise le Blanc de la Vallière. I am strong. Stronger than you can imagine..."
Just for the show, Ordell clicked a button on the gun to eject its magazine, showing a multitude of powerful, silver-tipped bullets in golden yellow casings.
"I am many things... but..."
Ordell leaned forward in his chair, his blood-red eyes staring into the very souls of Colbert and Osmond, "I am not evil... unless you make me."
Ordell's final words spoke volumes of the things he would do, but it was not until the smile faded from the man's face that the atmosphere truly grew to bone-chillingly low temperatures. His eyes lost most of their glow, becoming uncharacteristically dull as his expression darkened into a stoic glare.
"I will tell you this only one time and one time only..."
To their surprise, the clip of Casull found itself back inside the gun and the tip of the barrel aimed straight at them.
...
...
...
"My master is my everything. I won't tolerate any incursions against her safety. I am giving this to you as a warning, you are not bad people, hence I trust that you won't let any of this happen... If something happens to my master as a result of someone purposefully trying to endanger, let alone kill her... The term "living hell" will not begin to describe what would follow after. Should Louise actually perish... The world will burn. There will be blood. There will be death. I will personally pull their heads off their necks and stab them onto iron pikes. I will rip out their hearts and feed them to the wolves. I will rip, tear and maim until the world has been rendered silent. The dead... shall dance. And all of HELL will SING!"
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