Also, la Terrour.
Noblesse Oblige [Znt/SI]
Chapter One Hundred and Three
- Location
- https://discord.gg/z9tBvbh
Chapter One Hundred and Three
I was drinking coffee. Anne was having milk with biscuits. At the very least, even as she plunged the biscuits into the milk, she was far more tolerable than using her hands to eat duck. She sported, now that I had the time and the attention to look better at her, a few bracelets of the so called cute and classy genre typical of teenagers. Stuff like tiny bronze hearts on tiny chains, small teddy bears stylized on plastic bands, that sort of stuff that adorned the wrists and arms of teenagers throughout the decades.
"Miss Mallard," I said calmly. "Would you like some jam on those biscuits?"
"Uh?" as she said that, a servant neared and began to gently cover one side of a biscuit with apricot jam, before putting it upon a delicate white platter and serving it right next to her cup. "Seriously? All of that work for just one biscuit?" she mumbled, the servant wincing and bowing before he began to do another right away. "No, no, that's not what I meant-it's fine-" she said, much to the servant's consternation who bowed once more, ashamed at having misunderstood the girl's orders.
"You may go," I said calmly, and the servant dutifully obeyed.
"You could have said thank you," Anne said, staring at me.
"Me? Thank a commoner?" I replied with a sigh, "I am a noble-the only commoners I will ever thank are those that belong to my army, should they ever save my life. That is the type of commoner I will thank. Why should I thank someone for doing their job? Do you thank the horses because they work the fields? The birds because they make good roasts?"
I didn't like playing the part of the nobility entitled nobleman, but at the royal palace, surrounded by servants, there was little choice.
"Jerk," Anne mumbled.
"Now, if you'll be willing to listen, I will explain," I said, ignoring her mumbled words. I gave her the rundown of what a familiar was, of what it meant to be a noble, and some really quick etiquette lessons on the most important and common things not to miss, or make a mistake of. Even then, she had begun playing with her empty cup and the spoon quite ludicrously, humming every now and then at my words, feigning attention.
"So I just have to go 'Grace, grace, grace...' and highness, right?" she grumbled.
"If it's the king, it's Royal Highness, if it's the princess, it's Royal highness or highness depending on your degree of amiability wit her, everyone else is a grace to you, even the knights," I pointed out. "While there is a modicum of acceptance if you are a child, your age marks you as an adult already, so mistakes will not be tolerated."
"An adult?" she grumbled. "Fuck yeah," she smiled. "Does that mean I don't have to lie about my age any longer to drink alcohol?"
"Your...age," I said with a sigh, "Is not something I care about. A proper lady never drinks more than one cup of wine throughout the whole night, and even then, not in one go-"
"Bah, stupid rules," Anne said with a huff. "Hey! By the way, I haven't seen old pedophile guy yet-" I choked back any barbed retorts. "If he's the one who got me here, he can send me back, can't he?"
"No," I replied. "The summoning ceremony works only in one direction. Also, the runes on your forehead-"
"The runes on my what?" I winced as soon as I heard her question, and I proceeded to cover my ears as she began to scream once a servant brought her a mirror to look at her reflection in it. I was pretty sure that the guest room she had been staying in had a mirror, but she must have ignored it in favor of coming to sass my ass early in the morning.
What followed next was another verbal string of curses about being branded like some sort of cow, not signing up for this, calling the child services, the police, the-and then she stopped after a few minutes, gasping for air as she clutched the mirror with her right hand.
"There's...There's no one I can call for this, is there?" she mumbled.
"That depends...if you told me in what country this Paris is-Romalia? Germania? Rub'Al Khali?" as I asked that, she shook her head.
"My...My world has only one moon," she mumbled. "Last night-I saw there were two..."
"I see. Well, I would not be cooperating either if I were in your shoes," I acquiesced. "However, the official version will be that you come from the far east, from the lands of Rub'Al Khali-it should work in pacifying most of the court considering your state of undress on the first day-"
"This court thing already sucks," she mumbled. "Do I have to?"
"What would you rather do?" I replied. "A familiar is an extension of the mage that summoned them-"
"So what? I can't do my own stuff?" she huffed, angrily looking at me. "I'll let you know, the place I come from-this sort of thing is a crime! Kidnapping someone, branding them like this-we don't do this even to our worst criminals!"
I sighed, "And?" I replied, gesturing at the wide gardens in front of us. "Be free then," I said. "Off you go. Go right through those gates, leave and...then what? You see, one thing you are not understanding is that...the spell picks the familiar best suited for their master. Tell me this, at least honestly...do you actually want to go back? Do you have things you truly need back home waiting for you?" I eyed her quite calmly, and she flinched. "You are a lost child, scared, and worrying about what will happen to you. This is not a gilded cage. You are free to take those gates," I pointed at them once more, "And leave, make a life for yourself. You are free to make that choice, and face the consequences of it."
I pushed my back against that of the chair, clasping my fingers together. "I'll even be kind and give you a few thousand ecus, so that you may rebuild yourself a life here-but then...what will you do?"
She didn't answer, she simply looked at the mirror. "I didn't want this."
"But you wanted something, didn't you?" I replied smoothly. "You wanted something that the King of a whole country could give you. You wanted something that made you different, special perhaps. Is that not the truth?"
"I-I don't know," she said. "I-I guess...but...this sort of thing-"
"The summoning spell does not lie. So, why are you not a bit more honest with yourself? Perhaps you sought to be the best among your peers? Perhaps you sought to be more powerful than them? Perhaps you sough great luxury, a lifestyle of delicious foods and little to no work? Whatever it is that you wished for, you would not be here otherwise. Of course, the portal opened up in front of you...but even so, even if you touched it by mistake, even if you came through it by mistake...you still did. You are the most suited familiar for the King of Gallia, and in turn, he is your most suited master. That will not change, no matter how much you cry about it or scream that you didn't want it-you are twin souls that are destined to at the very least share a lot of common ground," I hummed as I raised a hand, snapping my fingers.
From behind me, Raven came swooping down quietly, a mass of feathers black and white and beady bird eyes. He cawed happily, "Hello!" he cawed, "My name is Raven, and I am master's familiar," he brought his head down, and I gently rubbed the back of it.
"Although I mention Master and Familiar-this isn't the truth. Is the brain the master of a hand? Is the heart the master of the blood? A bond is shared between a master and a familiar-" I said gently, "That is why-it is not slavery, no matter how bizarre it might look to your eyes."
"T-That's...a giant...crow..." Anne mumbled, her eyes wide as she began to hyperventilate. "He talks and-and he's going-he's going to eat me isn't he!?"
"No," I said with a grin as I grabbed the remaining biscuits on the table and placed them under Raven's beak. He began to pick them up and guzzle them down, humming happily all the same. "He's my fluffy, wuffy, feathery, kind, beautiful and marvelous familiar. He's Raven."
"I love my master!" Raven squawked, rubbing the side of his head against the right side of my body, before dropping his head on my lap and plopping down by the side of my chair.
"I love you too," I said with a giggle as I plopped my own head over the back of Raven's, turning my eyes to look at Anne. "See? It's not that-"
She was unashamedly terrified. I blinked. What was there to be-
"I-I'm supposed to do stuff like that?" she shrieked, "That's-I'm not a whore!"
"What? No-you got the wrong idea of-"
"What is the reason of this unholy screaming?" Isabella's sudden voice cut into the garden air with the crisp snapping of a whip. The next second, I felt dread. With her scepter in hand, Isabella's eyes narrowed on the figure of Anne, "Uhm..." she turned thoughtful. Behind her, the full contingent of her attendants were in wait, dreadfully standing quiet and still, knowing fully well that a pissed off Isabella was a terror to behold by anyone -myself included.
"Dear," I said hastily, standing right up, "I was just fixing a misunderstanding, nothing to worry about. Were you planning on having breakfast in the gardens too?"
"I," Isabella said with her tongue clicking against her teeth, "Was planning on having breakfast with my husband," she continued quite calmly, but I could feel the venom in her words. This was full Marie Antoinette about to land a beheading sentence to someone else. This was Isabella throwing shit at Charlotte's form-mode, but against another target. "But since that is not possible, I wished to see the reason why. To think that such a disgraceful commoner is even allowed to eat at the same table as my husband-such squawking is befitting of monkeys."
She turned her attention from me to her, and blinked. "You aren't standing up in the presence of the Crown-Princess? Do you have a death wish, commoner?"
"Isabella-she's from Rub'Al Khali-she doesn't know our customs," I said quickly. "Do find it in your magnanimous heart to forgive her. She is your father's familiar after all-" Isabella, in reply, huffed. Still, she looked at Anne, as if waiting for her to do something.
I turned a pleading gaze at her with a sort of unspoken, oh will you please stand up already!
To which Anne did, thankfully, obey.
"I'm sorry," she said, much to my immediate relief. So she had self-preservation instincts at the very least. "Your...highness?" I nodded, and she huffed in relief.
"Very well," Isabella muttered, glaring at her. "Just be thankful my husband is taking time out of his very busy schedule to teach you. If you were anyone else-ah, enough! Henry," she grabbed my wrist and as I turned towards her, she quickly pulled a fast kiss on my lips. "I always get what I want, you'd better remember that," she said in the end, if towards me or towards Anne, I had no idea. "Also, Henry's my husband. My father's familiar or not, you put your moves on him and I will ensure it is the last thing you ever do."
Then, with a huff, she walked away with her attendants in tow.
"That was my wife," I said calmly. "The crown princess of Gallia."
"You keep your hands away from me, you sick pedophile," were the first words that Anne said right to my face as I turned towards her.
Somehow, just somehow, hearing those words made me happy inside.
I was drinking coffee. Anne was having milk with biscuits. At the very least, even as she plunged the biscuits into the milk, she was far more tolerable than using her hands to eat duck. She sported, now that I had the time and the attention to look better at her, a few bracelets of the so called cute and classy genre typical of teenagers. Stuff like tiny bronze hearts on tiny chains, small teddy bears stylized on plastic bands, that sort of stuff that adorned the wrists and arms of teenagers throughout the decades.
"Miss Mallard," I said calmly. "Would you like some jam on those biscuits?"
"Uh?" as she said that, a servant neared and began to gently cover one side of a biscuit with apricot jam, before putting it upon a delicate white platter and serving it right next to her cup. "Seriously? All of that work for just one biscuit?" she mumbled, the servant wincing and bowing before he began to do another right away. "No, no, that's not what I meant-it's fine-" she said, much to the servant's consternation who bowed once more, ashamed at having misunderstood the girl's orders.
"You may go," I said calmly, and the servant dutifully obeyed.
"You could have said thank you," Anne said, staring at me.
"Me? Thank a commoner?" I replied with a sigh, "I am a noble-the only commoners I will ever thank are those that belong to my army, should they ever save my life. That is the type of commoner I will thank. Why should I thank someone for doing their job? Do you thank the horses because they work the fields? The birds because they make good roasts?"
I didn't like playing the part of the nobility entitled nobleman, but at the royal palace, surrounded by servants, there was little choice.
"Jerk," Anne mumbled.
"Now, if you'll be willing to listen, I will explain," I said, ignoring her mumbled words. I gave her the rundown of what a familiar was, of what it meant to be a noble, and some really quick etiquette lessons on the most important and common things not to miss, or make a mistake of. Even then, she had begun playing with her empty cup and the spoon quite ludicrously, humming every now and then at my words, feigning attention.
"So I just have to go 'Grace, grace, grace...' and highness, right?" she grumbled.
"If it's the king, it's Royal Highness, if it's the princess, it's Royal highness or highness depending on your degree of amiability wit her, everyone else is a grace to you, even the knights," I pointed out. "While there is a modicum of acceptance if you are a child, your age marks you as an adult already, so mistakes will not be tolerated."
"An adult?" she grumbled. "Fuck yeah," she smiled. "Does that mean I don't have to lie about my age any longer to drink alcohol?"
"Your...age," I said with a sigh, "Is not something I care about. A proper lady never drinks more than one cup of wine throughout the whole night, and even then, not in one go-"
"Bah, stupid rules," Anne said with a huff. "Hey! By the way, I haven't seen old pedophile guy yet-" I choked back any barbed retorts. "If he's the one who got me here, he can send me back, can't he?"
"No," I replied. "The summoning ceremony works only in one direction. Also, the runes on your forehead-"
"The runes on my what?" I winced as soon as I heard her question, and I proceeded to cover my ears as she began to scream once a servant brought her a mirror to look at her reflection in it. I was pretty sure that the guest room she had been staying in had a mirror, but she must have ignored it in favor of coming to sass my ass early in the morning.
What followed next was another verbal string of curses about being branded like some sort of cow, not signing up for this, calling the child services, the police, the-and then she stopped after a few minutes, gasping for air as she clutched the mirror with her right hand.
"There's...There's no one I can call for this, is there?" she mumbled.
"That depends...if you told me in what country this Paris is-Romalia? Germania? Rub'Al Khali?" as I asked that, she shook her head.
"My...My world has only one moon," she mumbled. "Last night-I saw there were two..."
"I see. Well, I would not be cooperating either if I were in your shoes," I acquiesced. "However, the official version will be that you come from the far east, from the lands of Rub'Al Khali-it should work in pacifying most of the court considering your state of undress on the first day-"
"This court thing already sucks," she mumbled. "Do I have to?"
"What would you rather do?" I replied. "A familiar is an extension of the mage that summoned them-"
"So what? I can't do my own stuff?" she huffed, angrily looking at me. "I'll let you know, the place I come from-this sort of thing is a crime! Kidnapping someone, branding them like this-we don't do this even to our worst criminals!"
I sighed, "And?" I replied, gesturing at the wide gardens in front of us. "Be free then," I said. "Off you go. Go right through those gates, leave and...then what? You see, one thing you are not understanding is that...the spell picks the familiar best suited for their master. Tell me this, at least honestly...do you actually want to go back? Do you have things you truly need back home waiting for you?" I eyed her quite calmly, and she flinched. "You are a lost child, scared, and worrying about what will happen to you. This is not a gilded cage. You are free to take those gates," I pointed at them once more, "And leave, make a life for yourself. You are free to make that choice, and face the consequences of it."
I pushed my back against that of the chair, clasping my fingers together. "I'll even be kind and give you a few thousand ecus, so that you may rebuild yourself a life here-but then...what will you do?"
She didn't answer, she simply looked at the mirror. "I didn't want this."
"But you wanted something, didn't you?" I replied smoothly. "You wanted something that the King of a whole country could give you. You wanted something that made you different, special perhaps. Is that not the truth?"
"I-I don't know," she said. "I-I guess...but...this sort of thing-"
"The summoning spell does not lie. So, why are you not a bit more honest with yourself? Perhaps you sought to be the best among your peers? Perhaps you sought to be more powerful than them? Perhaps you sough great luxury, a lifestyle of delicious foods and little to no work? Whatever it is that you wished for, you would not be here otherwise. Of course, the portal opened up in front of you...but even so, even if you touched it by mistake, even if you came through it by mistake...you still did. You are the most suited familiar for the King of Gallia, and in turn, he is your most suited master. That will not change, no matter how much you cry about it or scream that you didn't want it-you are twin souls that are destined to at the very least share a lot of common ground," I hummed as I raised a hand, snapping my fingers.
From behind me, Raven came swooping down quietly, a mass of feathers black and white and beady bird eyes. He cawed happily, "Hello!" he cawed, "My name is Raven, and I am master's familiar," he brought his head down, and I gently rubbed the back of it.
"Although I mention Master and Familiar-this isn't the truth. Is the brain the master of a hand? Is the heart the master of the blood? A bond is shared between a master and a familiar-" I said gently, "That is why-it is not slavery, no matter how bizarre it might look to your eyes."
"T-That's...a giant...crow..." Anne mumbled, her eyes wide as she began to hyperventilate. "He talks and-and he's going-he's going to eat me isn't he!?"
"No," I said with a grin as I grabbed the remaining biscuits on the table and placed them under Raven's beak. He began to pick them up and guzzle them down, humming happily all the same. "He's my fluffy, wuffy, feathery, kind, beautiful and marvelous familiar. He's Raven."
"I love my master!" Raven squawked, rubbing the side of his head against the right side of my body, before dropping his head on my lap and plopping down by the side of my chair.
"I love you too," I said with a giggle as I plopped my own head over the back of Raven's, turning my eyes to look at Anne. "See? It's not that-"
She was unashamedly terrified. I blinked. What was there to be-
"I-I'm supposed to do stuff like that?" she shrieked, "That's-I'm not a whore!"
"What? No-you got the wrong idea of-"
"What is the reason of this unholy screaming?" Isabella's sudden voice cut into the garden air with the crisp snapping of a whip. The next second, I felt dread. With her scepter in hand, Isabella's eyes narrowed on the figure of Anne, "Uhm..." she turned thoughtful. Behind her, the full contingent of her attendants were in wait, dreadfully standing quiet and still, knowing fully well that a pissed off Isabella was a terror to behold by anyone -myself included.
"Dear," I said hastily, standing right up, "I was just fixing a misunderstanding, nothing to worry about. Were you planning on having breakfast in the gardens too?"
"I," Isabella said with her tongue clicking against her teeth, "Was planning on having breakfast with my husband," she continued quite calmly, but I could feel the venom in her words. This was full Marie Antoinette about to land a beheading sentence to someone else. This was Isabella throwing shit at Charlotte's form-mode, but against another target. "But since that is not possible, I wished to see the reason why. To think that such a disgraceful commoner is even allowed to eat at the same table as my husband-such squawking is befitting of monkeys."
She turned her attention from me to her, and blinked. "You aren't standing up in the presence of the Crown-Princess? Do you have a death wish, commoner?"
"Isabella-she's from Rub'Al Khali-she doesn't know our customs," I said quickly. "Do find it in your magnanimous heart to forgive her. She is your father's familiar after all-" Isabella, in reply, huffed. Still, she looked at Anne, as if waiting for her to do something.
I turned a pleading gaze at her with a sort of unspoken, oh will you please stand up already!
To which Anne did, thankfully, obey.
"I'm sorry," she said, much to my immediate relief. So she had self-preservation instincts at the very least. "Your...highness?" I nodded, and she huffed in relief.
"Very well," Isabella muttered, glaring at her. "Just be thankful my husband is taking time out of his very busy schedule to teach you. If you were anyone else-ah, enough! Henry," she grabbed my wrist and as I turned towards her, she quickly pulled a fast kiss on my lips. "I always get what I want, you'd better remember that," she said in the end, if towards me or towards Anne, I had no idea. "Also, Henry's my husband. My father's familiar or not, you put your moves on him and I will ensure it is the last thing you ever do."
Then, with a huff, she walked away with her attendants in tow.
"That was my wife," I said calmly. "The crown princess of Gallia."
"You keep your hands away from me, you sick pedophile," were the first words that Anne said right to my face as I turned towards her.
Somehow, just somehow, hearing those words made me happy inside.
Madou Sutegobana
Autocorrupt has been disabled.
- Location
- Twin Realms Mandala
By "All men are created equal." they did not mean, "All men are equally capable of the same feats!" or it would have been a false statement all along.
There have been sick, weak, physically disabled, and mentally disabled people as long as there have been people! There are also people who can perform feats of physical or mental prowess that are met with disbelief and skepticism because they are so very out of the normal statistical average.
There have been sick, weak, physically disabled, and mentally disabled people as long as there have been people! There are also people who can perform feats of physical or mental prowess that are met with disbelief and skepticism because they are so very out of the normal statistical average.
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- Location
- Germany
- Pronouns
- He/Him
And Napoleon, later on - see Wiki. A little bit of human rights (modern definition of). But no, it was no fun being noble during revolution times. Or being the wrong revolutionary (guillotine ...).
EmpirePlayer
Anyone need some chaos?
- Location
- Penang
You know, this is the first time I read a semi-good guy be happy at being called a pedo straight to their face. Maybe it is the satisfaction from his abstinence from lewding Isabella? (No matter how much trouble that can bring politically and emotionally to Isabella.)
Also worth of noticing is that, miss Fowl is, for all intents and purposes, as far as Halk, an aristocrat, and a very high one at that.
With mages you could theoretically argue that all men were not created equal. Mages have power from birth that others cannot replicate no matter how hard they try.
Mizu
Software Developer
- Location
- Victoria, Australia
amiability with her.
She's not cottoning on to the cultural differences here that fast, is she? Although I confess Henry devolving into silliness with Raven would give the wrong impression on what Familiar are expected to be towards their Master, behavior-wise.
Probably because this is the first time someone agrees with his views.
And the couple thinking:
Shade: "Finally someone who understands."
Isabella: "Oh, how I wish he was one..."
Madou Sutegobana
Autocorrupt has been disabled.
- Location
- Twin Realms Mandala
Sight is the same for someone who is blind from birth.
Sight can theoretically be fixed, and being blind can be argued to be caused by an illness or some other problem while being born.
You can't 'cripple' a mage to my understanding. Either you have it at birth, or you don't. It's also a significant thing that can be predicted.
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Something something Animal Farm.
I'm under the impression that you need a wand to actually achieve anything at with ZnT magic, and a fair bit of study. Are there other obvious markers of being a mage? Because I could easily see it being the case that nobles are mages because they can train. I don't see many serfs getting any sort of instruction.
Well, according to many cultures, yes for all of those.
But seriously though, you probably could have put it more delicately.
They made me happy too!
PseudoSim
Intentionally Obfuscating
- Location
- Beating my muse with a bat for being a pain
I wonder if Henry remembers how to speak his mother tongue.
Also, VIVA LA REVOLUCION!
Edit: Henry: "Oh you think you have it bad? I remember being born. I almost went insane because I couldnt talk for two years- yeah, you got off lucky."
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Keep in mind that I'm not particularly arguing this from a moral perspective. I like proper rights and respects. My argument is that when you can have someone wave a wand and say some words to light someone on fire, and then other person can't do anything similiar then you have an obvious mismatch.
Nah, magic is hereditary, and 'commoners' don't have any sort of potential. Correct me if I'm wrong of course. Aside from bastards, magic is contained in nobel lines. Hell that's the entire basis of the setup in a country. Nobel=magic.
[pedant]I'm pretty sure that makes him an ephebophile, actually... [/pedant]
The Grey Mage
Certified Team Flare Hater
- Location
- Parallel Universe 43-j
It was a false statement all along. No one is completely equal to anyone else.
for some ungodly reason The crown princess of Gallia's voice sounds like this in my head....
.... i dont know why but i find it fitting.....
.... i dont know why but i find it fitting.....
- Location
- Usa
Well he is trying to inflict culture shock as soon as possible to get her to realize how far she is from home.
People their would kill a commoner with barely a care and just have Joseph try to get another.
She has no power or pull until they can confirm for others what she is.
Also, with how stable Halk seem to be, for such long periods of time, I'm going to assume that Wands are not that hard to come by, if somewhat watched. Given the importance of mages for a country's power, military or otherwise, they probably are quite good at detecting and coopting "lost eggs" among the commoners. Both better and more stable to have any commoner discovered to have magic elevated to (non-landed, incredibly petty) nobility than hunted down, oppressed or anything of the sort. After all, why would they then rock the boat if they are now one of the privileged?
Yes, but I'm saying - do they know that? Do you get instances of spontaneous magic in untrained mages? Or other big signs saying "this one has magic"?
It's been 6000 years since Brimir. Even if magic was hereditary, I'm pretty sure by this point everyone has the genes - every single European can trace their lineage to Charlemagne, and he lived in the 9th century. I find it far more likely that the nobles are mages not because they're noble, but because they have the training.
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