Cas had just made it to school after his morning training session with his Mistress. Over the past month he had already begun to see signs of change within himself. He felt more energetic and would not get winded as easily. He was still a slave but that was just his current circumstances.
"Thanks to my Mistress I should be able to get out of that situation on my own." Cas smiled to himself as he walked the halls of Undine. He entered his class and was immediately knocked to the ground by none other than his young master.
"Oi, Cas. What's your relationship with that traitorous bitch!" Cas looked up at his young master confused. "Who might you be speaking of young master?"
"There's only one bitch that you hang out with, stool! Now tell me what your relationship is!" Cas looked at his young master, his confused look fading as it was replaced by a cold glare. Cas' young master, Flint, noticed his sudden change in demeanor. He smirked and stomped onto Cas' back.
"I guess she must be pretty close to you, huh?"
"My Mistress is no bitch, Flint." The young noble was shocked when the boy spoke back to him. Cas slowly returned his gaze to his 'Young Master'. The look was no longer cold and was instead filled with bloodlust. "And she certainly is no traitor." Flint stared at the boy in bewilderment before kicking him in his stomach as hard as he could.
Cas fell over, gasping for air, while Flint grabbed his shirt and lifted him off of the ground. Cas's feet hung loosely in the air as the young noble scowled at the boy. "You really don't know do you? That's just sad and I thought you two were close or something. Hey you!" Flint called over a random girl in the class. He pointed to the paper that was in her hands. "Bring that over here. I want him to see it himself."
The girl didn't move. "Hurry up or your next!" Flint's threat ended the girl's abrasiveness. She hurriedly brought the paper to the boy and he snatched it from her hands. "Useless bastards. Here, take a look." Flint held the paper in front of Cas's face allowing him to be able to see what was written on it.
"Royal Magic Researcher causes death of the youngest prince during Innovation Conference! During the Innovation Conference a serious scandal has occurred. The conference is normally a global event for people to showcase their creations or improvements in the world of artifice, martial techniques, and magic. The event is a great chance for nations to show off how advanced they are in certain aspects of improvements. However, famous Sorcerer Breine Deminal has taken this chance to instead fulfill his own selfish desires..."
Cas's eyes widened as he noticed the name in the paper.
Breine Deminal.
That had to be Alix's father. He was famous? A Royal Magic Researcher is basically a sorcerer that has their work financed by the royal family themselves. He continues to read.
"...During the most anticipated showcase of the development of the Teleportation Circle a terrible event occurred. Two people applied to show off their take on the spell. One was Ponali Yenders, eldest daughter of the famed Yenders family and a well known and respected Magic Researcher and the other was Breine Deminal. The two were competing head to head in the event but they both showed great confidence in their creations so it was decided that the transportation of a living creature would be tested.
More specifically, the youngest prince of the Pesin Royal Family Rasnil Hinolea. The boy actually volunteered himself be the test subject for Breine's test while Ponali entered her own circle herself. Both spells were activated simultaneously but the end result was drastically different..."
"This is quite the dragged out report. Are you sure it's authen-" Cas was punched hard in the gut by Flint. "Fine then I'll finish the story for you! Ahem, Ponali Yenders returned from her expedition with no consequence. The prince, however, returned a blobby mess. Basically just loose organs in sludge. The confident and arrogant Breine claimed that the prince's state was not his fault as his process had been flawless.
He even had the gall to claim that Ponali Yenders had made use of his sequence instead of her own. The ravings of a madman obviously. Thus, the man was executed and his family had to race away from the capital in shame!"
Flint Maron began to laugh in Cas's face. His laughter was quickly overshadowed however, as the boy that he had hanging by his shirt began to cackle. "What the hell are yo-" Cas smacked Flint in the face as hard as he could. The hit caused the noble to trip and drop the boy. "What that hell! What do you think you're-" Cas punched the boy in the jaw.
"That was all?" Flint looked at the boy. The roles had suddenly been reversed as now he was on the ground and Cas was looking down on him. "You read a story from a decade ago and suddenly you think you have the right to treat my beautiful Mistress like a filthy commoner. Fool!" Cas stomped onto Flint's head slamming it onto the stone floor. Flint held his nose as blood poured out of it.
"Who passed out this slander?" Flint stared into the wild eyes of Cas but refused to give in to the boy. "You are nothing but a slave! A tool for my family to make use of as we please! You do not have the right to-" Cas placed his hand onto Flint's face, the same spot that he had slapped him earlier, and spoke, "Igneous Catena."
On the boy's face was a sorcery spell that Cas had placed there while slapping him earlier. A burning chain condensed of pure fire mana exited the spell and flew to Cas's hand. The chain was attached directly to Flint's face.
"With this chain, you are now my slave."
"What are you-" Flint suddenly felt as though his face was either going to melt or be pulled off as Cas suddenly yanked the chain. Flint was filled with fear. His attention was pulled back to Cas when the boy snapped and pointed at himself. "You are only to answer my questions..." A sinister grin was plastered on Cas's face. He found the current situation quite comical.
"...Slave."
...
Alix eventually made it to her class in spite of the constant glares and hostility from her peers. Of course, Magic Theory was one of the few classes that she could take note of so she preferred not to miss it. Though if she had one vice about the class it would be...
"Well well well. If it isn't Ms. Deminal." The older woman smugly pranced up to the girl. Alix rolled her eyes, "Do you need something, Ms. Hinkly?" Ms. Hinkly scoffed as the girl spoke. "You're still acting all high and mighty like your mother? Even when your secret has gotten out." Alix's eyes narrowed.
"What secret?" She had nothing to hide from her knowledge. I mean she wasn't telling anyone about the whole situation with the strings but that was more because she didn't know what they were either. So what could have...
"The truth behind your father's death. Oh, I mean his execution for treason." Alix's face visibly shifted. She stared down the older woman, "Where did you hear about that?" She spoke through her teeth. Hinkly laughed heartily.
"What's the matter? Did I strike a nerve, young lady? Well, guess what?! I'm not the only one that has this information." The teacher tossed an old article out at the girl. It was the one that had been written around nine years ago just after the last Innovation Conference.
The story about her father's failure and execution. Alix's eyes traveled around the room and she could confirm at just a glance that all the students there had seen it. Now the hostility from the students in the hall made sense. They had likely also seen this article. "Who gave this to you?" Seeing the girl's clear shift in mood brought a bright smile to the teacher's face.
"Why should I tell you? You are just the daughter of a foolish sorcerer! One that didn't even have the dignity to admit to his own mistakes! Now I can see where you get that insolent attitude from. Like father, like daughter." Alix took a deep breath and stood from her chair. She didn't move and just stood there smoldering.
"You asked for this." Alix spoke quietly. The woman leaned forward pretending that she didn't hear the girl. "What was that?" Hinkly was so busy antagonizing the girl that she did not realize that she had moved her face directly into striking distance as Alix quickly picked up her chair and slammed it into the woman's head. As the chair made contact it began to shatter from the force that the girl had put behind it.
Hinkly crashed into three desks as she lay on the ground motionless. Alix let go of the shattered chair and stormed out of the classroom. The students stood complete still as they we're terrified.
"She just hit a teacher with a chair!"
"She really is a barbarian!"
"It makes sense now that we know who her father was. Bastard." They began to quietly insult the girl. I mean, who would openly insult someone that just slammed a chair into another person's face and walked out as if she did nothing wrong.
As soon as she was out of the room Alix was greeted by Cas Plavoc. His clothes looked a bit disheveled but that was actually quite normal for him.
"What is it, Mind Slave?"
"Harrison Floie." Alix turned to the boy with indifference to the name. She had nothing to worry about when it came to that bastard young lord from that extinguished flame of a family. "What about him?" Cas nodded understanding that the girl did not care for the boy.
"He was the one that spread the story about your father, Mistress." Alix stopped moving and turned to Cas.
"Why didn't you just start with that?" Alix was enraged. That impertinent bastard had been trying to cross her over and over. Since she hadn't seen or heard from him in a while she had just assumed that he had dropped out or ran away with his tail tucked between his legs. This, however, was beyond her expectation. To spread her family's greatest shame around the school like propaganda. Alix considered what she would do next and smiled as she marched away.
Cas trailed closely behind and asked, "Where are we going, Mistress?" Alix had a sinister grin on her face as she responded.
"We're about to really extinguish the flame of the Floie family!"