24 Faculty Mettle

The next morning :

Louise slowly awakens from her sleep, the side of her face feeling decidedly worse than the rest of it. She rubs her cheek with a scowl, but it quickly fades as she remembers the prior events yesterday...

Was her familiar able to escape? She remembered Colbert's voice interrupting their escape attempt and pales slightly... While he might not look it, Professor Colbert was one of the most powerful Mages in the academy.

The academy had the teachers occasionally put on mock duels to show their prowess, and make the students unable to question their teachings. This revealed how powerful Professor Colbert was, and how adept he was with manipulating fire... Even the Academy's water mage was unable to touch him, despite her having a great elemental advantage.

She shakes her head and quickly gets up, dressing herself and applying some makeup to cover up her bruised cheek. Despite only having her familiar for a couple days, most of which was spent trying to heal him, his absence left an uncomfortable feeling within her... Perhaps she'd need to hire a servant?... Though, she doubted her time in the academy would last much longer.

Louise pats herself down and nods at herself in the mirror, she needed to head to breakfast, but first, she needed to find out what happened to her familiar.

*Knock-Knock*

...

"Enter!" she calls out, wondering who'd be knocking on her door this early... She imagined her familiar walking in for a moment, but quickly squashes such a fantasy.

The door opens, revealing Professor Colbert who had a hard look on his face, "Miss Valliere, the Headmaster needs to speak with you."

...

Louise releases a sigh, knowing that this was probably for her expulsion... Though... "What for? Did my-*Ahem!*, that rogue familiar manage to escape?" she asks after correcting herself.

Colbert rubs the bridge of his nose and adjusts his glasses after a moment, "Somewhat..." he says, raising a brow at the grin that tries to form on his student's face.

Louise pushes down the feelings of relief and demurely nods, "Very well, lead on."

With that, the two leave for the Headmasters office at the very top of the academy...

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Professor Colbert leads Louise through the heavy wooden double doors and walks over to stand next to Osmond's desk as the Headmaster looks at Louise analytically.

Louise' back straightens unconsciously as she spots the rest of the faculty also here, though, Mrs Chevreuse looked far more tired than she usually did... They almost looked like a tribunal of judges, waiting for her to make a wrong move...

She walks inside and stands with her hands lowered and clasped together, a stance of submission Louise mentally notes, clearly remembering this from her childhood etiquette lessons. "You required me, Headmaster?"

The elderly mage nods, afterwards resting his chin on his hands, "Indeed... I understand that yesterday's events must've been hard on you, Miss Valliere, but it seems we require your aid... Your familiar had been captured yesterday by Professor Colbert and imprisoned at the top of the Void tower... However, during the night, he seems to have escaped..." he states. He and the rest of the faculty take notice of the relieved look that crosses Louise's face however, raising many flags in their minds.

Osmond ignores it for now however, continuing his explanation, "While Mrs Chevreuse was guarding the cell, your familiar seems to have... Teleported away?" he says, more questioning than anything.

Mrs Chevreuse releases a cough in response, a blush illuminating her cheeks as she nods, "Y-yes... Lost magic, teleported away right in front of me..."

...

Obviously, the rest of the faculty didn't believe her... Partly because the lost magic of Brimir shouldn't be usable by 'some familiar', but also partly because they could see the faint bruising on her face that was barely covered by makeup... If the familiar did teleport away, there'd be no way of explaining her injuries...

Again though, Osmond ignores it, allowing the woman to retain some of her pride. Even if it was seemingly misplaced. "So, Miss Valliere, if you have any information pertaining to your familiar's abilities, destination, or even a motive to why he murdered Guiche de Gramont?"

...

Louise lowers her head in thought, unsure how to go about answering the Headmaster's questions... She could tell the truth, telling them that her familiar didn't actually intend to kill anyone. But that might call into question whether or not she was actually taken hostage...

Obviously, she could just proclaim him a villain, but she didn't think she could force herself to make her familiar's life any harder than she already had... Thus, she decided on the middle ground.

"I don't know why he hurt Guiche... But I heard him saying something about returning home... I think he's trying to get to Romalia!" she states, causing the faculty to slowly nod.

"From what I can tell, if he's able to teleport it must have a short-range, as his tracks indicate that he's headed North West, but that might be a ruse to throw us off as he circles around and goes South... I suspected he was from Romalia, but he'd need to pass through Gallia to make it there..."

Osmond nods and pulls out his pipe from seemingly nowhere, puffing it a few times... "Tristain's relationship with Gallia is worse than one would want... I find it unlikely that we'd be able to get Gallia to extradite him..."

"Then, we must catch him before he's able to reach the border. We can't allow such a criminal to escape. It will sully the reputation of Tristain and the Academy." Longuevuille, better known as Fourquet states.

All the while, Louise can't help but be internally smug. Her familiar should be headed East towards Germania if he actually listened to her, so his safety was all but assured... "Is there anything else, Headmaster?" she asks, breaking the group from their thoughts.

Osmond releases a heavy sigh as he looks at Louise, but, knowing that there wasn't any other way, he forces himself to look her in the eyes. "Miss Valliere. Your failure to summon a loyal familiar during the Sacred Ritual disqualifies you to learn any more magic in this institution. I would advise you to start packing your possessions, as a letter has already been sent to your parents." he states, taking no pleasure in the despairing look that overtakes Louise.

Louise just nods, knowing that this was coming... "Thank you all for your teachings... I apologize for not achieving your expectation..." her eyes moisten as she bows deeply, "Thank you all very much."