[Untitled]: CH_1: The New Familiar

I was having trouble with the planning for The Outsider's Resolve, so I did the two things I do when I find myself staring at a blank screen for an extended period of time— Read and Write

(Yes, I write when I can't write, bite me)

I started reading some easy to digest web fiction to freshen up my mind. I ended up in the Otome Game/Novel genre for a while and then I ended up seeing a clip from the [Familiar of Zero] on YT— something clicked and I ended up writing this to take my mind of TOR for a bit so I could return to it with fresh eyes.

[Don't worry, I have done this before— I wrote six chapters of a X-Men fanfic around ARC-03, I think.]

I'm not abandoning TOR, especially now that we are in the War Arc.

Well, here you go, this is nothing special—but it's the setup I came up with.

 
vvv HELP NEEDED vvv

[AN: Even if you don't want to read this, I would like if you some of you could tell me if you prefer this paragraph formatting. As in less space between paragraphs like below— or should I follow the formatting with TOR which has more space between paragraphs.]

———

.

Ken wished he had a cycle.

The faint thought passed his mind as he dragged his feet home from his part-time job from the pizzeria. After another evening of hard work for extra allowance, Ken wasn’t in the mood to walk home—he was never in the mood.

A cycle would not only be helpful in the evening; he could even commute to school in the morning, saving himself a few more minutes of sleep every morning. He could even use it during the chores and weekend grocery shopping.

Actually, why didn’t he have a cycle?

Because he never asked for one from his parents. He had a kiddy bike too small for a final-year high school student like him.

Ken sighed. Just like yesterday and the day before an empty home awaited him. He understood that they were working so he could have a comfortable upbringing, but he truly wished that he had a little more of his parents in his ‘upbringing.’ Why did he even let it bother him? He couldn’t even remember when was the last time he had seen his parents come back home before dinner time was well over.

It wasn’t like his allowance wasn’t enough. He just didn’t want to spend his time at home alone.

‘I should start saving for a cycle… or should I just ask for one?’ But he would be off for college in a few months; should he buy one now when he wouldn’t be staying at home for long?

Ken raised his arm to shield his eyes and squinted as a bright light beamed from the front. He stepped to the side of the street, thinking it was a car, and gave it a clear way to pass.

‘Wait, wouldn’t a motorcycle be better?’

As Ken was thinking that he could use the topic of buying a motorcycle to rope his dad into a conversation about something other than his school academics, the almost blinding light of the car headlamps passed by.

But when Ken lowered his arm, he stopped in his steps because the site in front of him made no sense.

He looked up and flinched when the rays from the bright, burning sun stung his eyes; Ken was pretty sure he had seen the full moon shimmering in the late evening sky. The second thing he couldn’t help but notice was that he was no longer in an urban residential area in a modern city and instead had clay soil beneath his feet, a lake that reflected the sky like a mirror beside him, and the stupidly large country mansion standing in the distance.

“Huh?”

“Huh?”

The second voice of bafflement wasn’t Ken, and he hurriedly turned back to see a gathering of people. Why were there so many people cosplaying in European medieval clothing? They were pointing and looking at him as they whispered among each other. He spotted long tables decked with food and drinks, and the entire scene looked like they were having an outdoor garden party.

However, all those people were standing some distance away from Ken. Standing a few steps away was a girl of the same age as him. She had striking blonde hair and burning red eyes that probably mimicked the same emotions he was feeling in the moment.

Confusion, panic, disbelief,

Ken tried to speak,

“Hey—!”

He couldn’t complete a word when he felt a scorching sensation. He raised his left arm and pulled up his sleeve in a panic to see red, orange, and yellow colors burning into his skin, making a pattern that, by the time Ken recognized as flames, his vision was already dominated by darkness.

Ken felt though he was standing inside a fire when he collapsed into unconsciousness.

———

.

That was a month ago.

Ken stared out the carriage window, watching the lush countryside pass him by as the carriage traveled on the dirt road.

It had taken him nearly a month and an attempt to run away to accept his new reality. When he was told by complete strangers who spoke in an unknown language—which for some reason he could both understand and speak perfectly—that he was summoned from his world to this one. It took him a very long time to accept that he wasn’t part of an elaborate prank and that he truly was in a scenario right out of a fantasy novel.

“Ken, you don’t look very good. Are you alright?”

He turned away from the window to look at his companion in the carriage.

Scarlett.

The blonde girl with red eyes, the reason why he was ripped from his world.

She was his Master—and he, her Familiar.

“Is the mark hurting again?” Scarlett asked in concern as her frowning gaze went to his left arm.

“No, not now,” Ken replied. “Just a bit of motion sickness. I’m not used to carriages.” The smooth rides of cars and trains had spoiled him. He couldn’t even handle a bumpy carriage ride without feeling a little bit sick.

His hand absentmindedly went to his left arm.

The fact that he was summoned across worlds would have told Ken that it was a feat of literal magic, but he was still utterly baffled when he saw tones of stone floating above a man’s head and found that magic was real in this world.

“… I see. Would you like it if we took a break?” asked Scarlett.

Ken didn’t miss the flash of disappointment in her eyes, even if she did well to hide it.

“Thank you for your kind offer, but I’ll be alright,” he said.

Even though this world had magic, only 1 in 10 people had the potential to access the mystical power. They were called the Magi. The magical trait seemed to be connected to genetics. One could develop the magic trait without having any Magus in their ancestry— but from generations of observation, the most reliable to ensure a child possessed the magic trait was to inherit it from a Magus parent—and probability jumped when both the parents were Magi.

The world had an ever-present aether-like substance called mana in nature. The Magi could siphon mana from nature and store it in their body to use later to perform miracle-like feats that shouldn’t be possible otherwise.

Once a Magi possessed the capability to store a certain high amount of mana in their bodies and had a level of understanding of the magical mysteries, they could summon themselves a Familiar and form a contract with them.

Familiars like the Magi were beings capable of magic, but unlike the Magi, they had an elevated level of attunement to mana, granting them superior levels of mana reserves and a brand of special magic unique to them—however, for their advanced capability, they possessed restrictions as well—Familiars could only use magic when they were in a contract with a Magus, and they could only use their special brand of magic and no other.

The reason why the Magi contracted Familiars was that, in return for unlocking the Familiars’ ability to use magic, the Magi got to use the Familiars’ special brand of magic and access the Familiar’s mana reserves as if it was their own with a few conditions.

When Ken found that he was forced away from his life, family, and world so that Scarlett could have a power bank on the side for her magic, he hated the girl with every fiber of his being. He hated all the Magi, but he blamed Scarlett for what had happened to him.

What right did she have to ruin his life? He had shouted and screamed at her, thrown things at her when she had come to see him, and done everything in his power to make her feel as though she was the worst person ever to live and that she should be ashamed of her existence.

Ken sighed.

He truly regretted his actions.

As he later came to know, it wasn’t Scarlett’s fault that he was here. In fact, she had zero control over who would show up as her Familiar.

There were various types of Familiar. There were magical beings like Spirits who were native to this world. There were beings whose existence began the moment they were summoned—they were born because of the summoning. There were also those like Ken, beings not native to the world who already existed in other worlds.

When Scarlett used the Familiar Summoning Ritual, she had no control over who would appear. From the prevalent magical belief, the Familiar that showed up was the most compatible with her and vice-versa.

The reason Ken showed up was because he innately possessed the ability to use magic and was compatible with Scarlett and was thus eligible for the summoning. When he told him that magic didn’t exist in the world, he got the theory that his world lacked mana in nature, making it so people who possessed the magical trait couldn’t use magic as an answer.

Moreover, Ken wasn’t a unique case of someone with an established life before being summoned. There was a time when summons like Scarlett and Ken’s were a common occurrence. But, of course, Familiars who were pulled away from their lives were rarely ever happy with their new arrangement from the get-go, and the relationships between the Magus and their Familiars were a commonality. The poor relationships were a painful hindrance as Familiars were crucial to a Magus’ development, and a poor relationship obstructed progress.

As such, the Magi society as a whole put their joint effort into modifying the Familiar Summoning Ritual so Ken’s type of Familiar wouldn’t show up—and it was successful as it stopped an entire type of Familiar from being contracted by the world’s Magi—but the magic wasn’t perfect… and cases like Ken would slip up even if they were extremely rare—one or two case every decade levels of rareness.

Tales of bad relationships between Magi and human Familiars and the change in the Familiar Summoning Ritual had given rise to a cultural negative stigma towards human Familiars.

Just like Ken wasn’t happy being here, Scarlett wasn’t pleased with Ken as her Familiar.

It was a depressing start.

“How long until we reach Idogen?” Ken asked Scarlett. There was no going back to his world, so instead of singing his own woos, the best he could do was to look forward and walk ahead in this new life of his.

Scarlett looked at her dainty wristwatch. “I believe we are almost there. It would be in view shortly.”

When Magus turned sixteen, they attended school to learn and develop their magical talent. Scarlett had turned sixteen a month ago and had summoned Ken on her birthday so she would have a Familiar when she went to school.

Her school of choice was Idogen, Academy of Arcane.

“What should I expect when we reach there?” he asked. “I believe it would be better for both of us if I knew how to behave. I don’t want to seem like a complete fool in front of others.” He had already done enough of that in the last month.

“That’s a good idea,” said Scarlett, sitting straight up. “Idogen is one of the country's premier institutes of the magical arts. Only the best of the magical talent gathers at Idogen because of its stringent admissions criteria.” She looked a bit proud of herself. “Which is why Idogen’s student body is majorly nobles and those from affluent families—”

“What does magical talent have to do anything with being noble?” asked Ken.

Scarlett pursed her lips. “The admission exam demands a lot from their applications. It’s almost impossible to get into Idogen if you don’t have some prior experience with magic. Families who want their children to get into Idogen hire Magi tutors to help them pass the admissions exam…. Magi tutors aren’t cheap.”

“So, the system is rigged before from the very start, huh,” Ken commented.

Scarlett frowned but didn’t say anything as a counter.

The world and its nations followed an Aristocratic form of government with kings and queens and the noble class ruling over territories and the common populace.

The kingdom of Atharywas no different.

Scarlett Pierce was the eldest daughter of Count Pierce, and their family ruled over the Hellen County since the inception of the Athary Kingdom.

As Scarlett’s Familiar, Ken had lived a life of absolute luxury from Day-1, and the only thing that stopped him from enjoying his time was overflowing amounts of anxiety. But it was clear to him that Scarlett was born with a silver spoon.

“How does me being as I am affect you?” asked Ken.

“… We are going to gain attention,” sighed Scarlett and leaned back into the seat.

“I will say this now, but I won’t be treated like a Zoo animal. I refuse to answer questions about my life and my world. Please make that clear to your friends and acquaintances,” Ken stated with a tone that said he wouldn’t budge on the matter.

“Of course, I understand,” she nodded.

Ken took her word for it. For the past month, she had left no effort into making him feel comfortable. The Master could turn their Familiars into an incorporeal spirit form; Ken had tried it once but had hated how it felt, and after he told Scarlett about it, she hadn’t forced him to go incorporeal even once.

Despite her feelings about this new relationship between them, Scarlett was a kind and civil person.

“So how should I act?” asked Ken.

“For now, you can introduce yourself and leave the talking to me. Perhaps after you get used to the etiquette, you can freely communicate with others,” Scarlett suggested.

“Sounds good to me,” Ken sighed.

It was better for him to stay on the sideline and observe until he was used to his new situation.

He asked, “What are my… duties? Like, what does a Familiar do?”

Ken had no idea what his responsibilities were as a Familiar.

“Ah well, I actually wanted to cover this back at home, but you know…”

“I’m sorry,” Ken felt embarrassed. One thing was for sure—he hadn’t left a good impression on Scarlett’s family and servant staff.

“To answer your question. Your duties are to give me access to your mana reserves, develop your Familiar magic, and join and support me in combat when I need you,” said Scarlett. “And w-well…” she sighed.

“What?”

“Traditionally, a Familiar is supposed to be subservient and follow the Master’s orders. It’s very much supposed to be that kind of relationship. But!” she raised her voice, “I had a different very vision of my relationship with my Familiar. I want us to be partners, so don’t worry—”

Ken raised his hand to stop her.

“Listen, I have no idea how this world functions. I have no standing in this world. Without you, I would be truly lost. I don’t mind following your orders as long it’s not something completely against my moral code,” said Ken. “I don’t intend to hold the fact that you ripped me away from my world over your head,” Scarlett looked guilty, so he quickly continued, “so I will earn my stay beside your side—feel free to order me around. I will try to be the ‘servant’ one can ask for,” he chuckled.

His fate was sealed the moment he was caught in the ritual. The Magi weren’t called Masters without reason. Despite having free will, Ken could instinctually feel that Scarlett was his Master and following her orders would be good for him.

Even without that, he felt like he needed to work for the noble, high-class lifestyle that he was living just by being connected to Scarlett.

He noticed that Scarlett was frowning.

“What?”

She sighed, “No, it’s nothing. I’ll keep your words in mind.”

Ken could clearly see that Scarlett wasn’t pleased. Had he said something wrong? He thought back about his words but couldn’t find anything wrong with them. He was perfectly willing to go along with the customs and norms of the world. Shouldn’t she be happy?

“Look, Idogen is in view,” Scarlett said as she pointed out the window.

Ken shifted to her side and poked his head out of the window.

On the horizon, he saw the Academy Town of Idogen, one of the most important cities in Athary. The city was built on a slight slope, which gave a clear view of the settlement. Standing right in the middle of the city was the large stone castle, the Idogen Castle, the home to Idogen, the Academy of Arcane.

The winds of new beginnings blew as Ken started his new life as a Familiar.