It took long enough for Louise to wake up on her own, and truth be told, Haru was wary of waking her up early. After all, whilst he'd avoided angering her as of yet, he still wasn't completely sure if the familiar binding contract included a Geass or not. Personal experience dictated that Chamo was a terrible example, so he ignored it.
Louise took long enough to wake up on her own, and she'd had to wake up on her own because her familiar had been wary of waking her up early. Some part of it was because her familiar did not own a clock and did not know what time it was, and she hadn't actually left instructions to wake her up. Clearly, she wanted to sleep in and he wouldn't bother her. The fact that he was enjoying the peace at the morning's silence, interrupted only by Louise's light breathing and the sound of the wind had very much to do with it.
Ain't I an honest man?
He had no idea how this particular contract worked. He had studied demon binding contract, to some extent. It had been necessary when he'd been a more revenge obsessed individual. For what had been a rather long time, he'd hated demons with a passion and had been looking for a way to specifically destroy them. Studying their contracts and how they interacted with the demons' spirits was something he'd thought could lead him to a way to destroy them permanently, instead of just cancelling their summon and destroying a mere physical body that wouldn't harm the demon in the long run.
There were several ways to enforce a demon's contract, if the demon had accepted it. Sometimes, the demons decided not to do their jobs after all. A mere spell would force the demon, either through pain or mind control, no matter whatever resistance it might have had (as it had technically given up any and all rights to oppose the master when it'd accepted the contract), to perform whatever task the contract stipulates to the best of their ability.
The only other option he knew would work would be killing his master. He wasn't going to die any time soon, and it'd defeat the point to kill himself. Slicing his own hand off to break the contract would be an experiment he'd have to perform at some point. The runes were etched onto the back of his hand, but he had the suspicion that it couldn't possibly be that simple. Again, he was left with the only option to simply wait for the moment and, when he had gotten better acquainted with wherever he'd been summoned to, he'd work on getting back.
He was not particularly happy with the role that he'd been given. Allowing himself a moment of pride, he was most decidedly not a simple, weak demon or magical beast one could easily enslave to perform menial tasks for a mage. He also did not find happiness in slavery. Neither was he averse to helping his "master", however he could, he was just that kind of guy, but even so, he'd left an entire world hanging and he wasn't entirely willing to leave for too long, even if holidays every once in a while were appreciated.
Also, seriously, summoning one of the most powerful beings in the world to do your laundry was just plain overkill of the highest caliber. Had it been Albireo doing it to Evangeline, it'd have been entirely expected, though.
He would have to look for a way to make the supposedly "absolute" contract, as Louise had put it, break. There was one way that would work, but it was a rather complicated ritual and he didn't know if he'd be allowed access to all the ingredients. Or if the runes he'd been branded with would work against him in that endeavor. Actually, he supposed that Louise herself could probably force him not to try that. So he'd look for some other way. Dwelling on it was, again, rather pointless.
Mostly when the pinkette summoner started to rouse from her sleep. He put on his warmest, most disarming smile, adjusting his glasses and the jacket of his suit (he thanked god that he'd taken it to the cleaners the very morning he'd been summoned, as he didn't know if he could find someone to clean it or make him a new one, and he liked his suits very much), just as her eyes focused on him.
"W-Who are you..?" She seemed to still be half asleep when she did wake up. Not a morning person, he assumed. Well, he was also used to dealing with these types, too. Which was the reason he'd been reluctant to wake her up, really, as she'd looked kind of cute while asleep and he knew that she probably wouldn't have been too happy to get her sleep interrupted. She'd been rather tired last night, by her own admission.
"Good morning." He said, smiling and bowing ever so slightly to his "master", as odd as it felt to do so. He was often on the receiving end of these kinds of gestures, and he'd never quite liked it. It felt equally odd to bow to someone whilst acting like a servant, but then again, he was Haru Springfield, one of the world's biggest overachievers. If he was gonna be a familiar, then he was going to be the best damn familiar he could be. That was the way he'd been taught to live, after all, and he knew that the best option was to take after Chachamaru for this. Chachamaru was a VERY good servant. And secretary. "Your clothes, Master."
He placed a neatly folded pile of clothing that contained a scandalously short skirt, a button up shirt, a pair of panties and a pair of thigh high socks. The fact that she seemed to possess no bras reminded him of a very important fact. He would've chuckled at her, again, strangely cute morning rituals, if it weren't for the fact that she looked just like someone else he knew was not a morning person. A fact that sent a chill down his spine when she yawned and tried to rub the sleep off her eyes.
She... She was just like...
So THAT was why he was so strangely subservient. He had to admit, it was a damn good reason to be. Although the hairstyle was different, the quantity was just about right, and in the dim light, the color wasn't a problem to ignore."Ah, my familiar..." Though she still seemed barely conscious. "I summoned you yesterday... Right?" Still, she was more adorable than terrifying, truly.
"Indeed." he said, before turning around. Because he was a gentleman and his manners dictated that he not watch a woman changing if he could help it at all. That, and it was unsettling. She was really childlike in appearance, and the parallels to another loli he knew were really starting to scare him. If she hadn't been as threatening as a kitten it might even have made him uncomfortable. He just prayed she didn't have her fashion sense, because, unlike the other one, this one wasn't seventy times the age she appeared to be.
"Dress me."
"Wha?" He blinked. Once, twice. She wasn't kidding. Okay, her nudity taboo was inexistent, apparently, if she was okay with him not only looking at her, but actually dressing her. It was sort of odd. "I am a man."
She smirked, evilly. Again, it still couldn't compare to what he'd been forced to endure by the evil loli to end all evil lolis. "What are you saying? You are just a lowly familiar."
A lowly familiar? She didn't seem to like him much. Or think much of familiars. Haru didn't like this particular opinion of hers, but he decided to keep silent about it. A stranger telling her that she was a bigot and should change her ways wouldn't get through. "But I'm still a male familiar, Master." Though it was hard to keep his composure with the now many parallels to Evangeline he could make out. It made him want to chuckle. It was like a nonthreatening version of his Master, really. Well, technically, she was his master too. It was sorta complicated.
Still, he just hoped that she listened to reason.
She wasn't going to have any of it. "When there's a servant available, a Noble would never dress herself!" … Really? He knew that would be the case if she was wearing a super elaborate dress that would've suffocated her if put on incorrectly, but the school uniform she wore seemed fairly practical to him... Well, the skirt was a bit short. Probably barely managed to cover the important bits. Given what he'd seen from his walk last night, he'd expected a reasonably conservative dress code. This certainly hadn't been what he'd expected.
Haru sighed, but did not drop his smile. He hardly ever did, even if it looked a bit strained to his trained eyes. Louise was unlikely to notice, and for the moment, he let the imperfections in the mask slide. His nerves were a bit overcharged and his annoyance toleration quota was not what it used to be. So he merely focused on his task. Even if she did cooperate through it, he still had about zero ability to dress a female. Undressing one was much easier, he had to admit. Particularly because he usually had female clothing of many sizes in his wardrobe. Clothes in his house, particularly feminine wear, tended to get destroyed fairly often. He blamed the teacher who'd taught him Exarmatio.
He was just thankful he hadn't had to dress her in an insanely elaborate elegant gothic lolita style dress. He did have to admit, when she wasn't channeling Evangeline, she was sort of cute... And even when she was. Evangeline was a bad influence. Then again, thoughts of perversion had no place in the mind of a gentleman, and while my own mind is fairly dirty, Haru had no thoughts about how soft the skin of his master's inner thighs was when he was dressing her.
"Let's go." And once again lapsing into Chachamaru's usual role, he followed her from one step behind. Because, evidently, thoughts of Chachamaru were the only thing that helped him remain in the perfect mold of a servant and not in his usual role of the hot british lover. Wow, I never thought I'd have "british" and "hot" in the same sentence when referring to a man unless I was talking about Austin Powers. Or maybe Daniel Craig.
Haru would give it to them. They did have a rather enormous cafeteria. Or did they call it cafeteria? He'd probably have to ask Louise at some point. Even so, he didn't particularly pay a lot of attention as he walked. Because he was busy taking in everything at once, as his eyes darted to and fro, never stopping too long in the same place. The students were rather interesting, as well. The tables were divided by cape color, and if he had to guess, he'd guess that they were probably divided by rank.
The various hair pigmentations he could see, however, bordered on the absurd. Evidently, just as Mundus Magicus, the presence of magic had an effect on the spectrum of colors hair could be. He'd investigate this correlation further some other time, however, because for one thing the author himself is hungry and for another we've already spent too long on a tangent about the phenomenon that plagues every anime ever. Really, though, bizarre physiology shouldn't really be something new to Haru, considering he was a crime against nature himself.
He walked in behind Louise, who had her head and chin held high, and almost made him want to smile when he noticed the fact that she was blatantly ignoring whatever comments may be directed at her. It was clear that she was doing so in an effort to get them to stop, which was commendable in that she wasn't trying to do it through violence. Words could be more effective, however. Again, coming from what she considered was nothing more than a lowly animal, his advice would be completely ignored, so he chose to keep silent. There would be a time when he would give her advice, but it'd only be when she was willing to listen to it.
No teacher likes to teach an audience that won't learn, after all, and as a teacher it was his task to have her want to learn from him. He'd managed to teach a group of rather unruly brats, he'd work with one noble brat.
Meanwhile, the pinkette herself was having wildly different thoughts. For one, her thoughts were focused on the fact that most of the whispers, which she actually listened to, even if she pretended not to, were centered on the rather spectacular failure that had been her summoning ritual, and how it'd been quite the impressive light show before the inevitable explosion. Most people knew that her theoretical knowledge of magic was truly second to none, though none had quite expected that she'd be capable of bringing her knowledge of theory into the practice.
Even Louise herself had been surprised to see that, yes, her studying had paid off in at least creating an impressive ritual.
The other problem she focused on, however, was the murmurs that were going around about her familiar. Her devilishly handsome familiar, that had every girl talking about him left and right. Evidently, it was his fault, because why would it not be? If he weren't so ridiculously good looking, people wouldn't talk about him all the time. Seriously, at times like these she'd rather have summoned a random commoner instead of him.
At least she hadn't gotten a perverted moron...
Somewhere, Hiraga Saito felt like he was missing something.
That stupid familiar, what the hell did he think he was doing? Well, Louise would not tolerate her familiar being a pervert! Then again, she couldn't fault him because he technically wasn't doing anything, even is she thought it was his fault anyway. Since being unreasonable for no reason would be, well, unreasonable, Louise simply tried her best to calm her nerves, lest she blow up and blow something up. Most likely her familiar. Steel yourself and your nerves, Louise, obey the Rule.
On the end of those already sitting, Kirche smirked as she watched them walk to a pair of free seats, wondering if Louise would allow him to take the free seat. Or she'd have been wondering about that, had she not been busier getting an eyeful of the gentleman that had walked with that pink blob in her sight. Clearly, Majin Buu had wandered close by looking for food.
It was just his manners that prompted him to put her chair in place for her, but Louise was still satisfied about the well behaved familiar who knew his place. Because, evidently, it was due to her great skills as a mage that this was so. Right? She was totally not a complete failure. In this, at least. Even so, she turned a curious eye to her familiar. Because she was expecting him to sit at the table or something.
"Oh, don't worry about me, Master." He said, smiling brightly as Louise looked at him, having had to turn around almost completely, as he was still a full step behind her. The position was kind of uncomfortable, as she also had to crane her neck upwards to meet his face. "I will wait for you." Though he eyed the food briefly, she could tell he was just judging it. A hungry gaze was very different from the gaze of a critic, after all.
It did look tasty, but if he could resist Satsuki's cooking, then there was nothing any other chef could hope to compete with. Haru decided that when he got back, he'd give her a raise, if only because he could compare now.
He still thought hiring her as the ISSDA's cook had been his best move by far. The morale had shot through the roof on that alone, and she seemed happy enough to work with her old classmates and teacher.
Haru was lost in thoughts about his old students, his mind wandering to the fact that by this point they would most likely be worried about his whereabouts, but mentally shook the thoughts away. Right now, he couldn't do much about it. So he turned his attention to his petite master, who hadn't dropped her seemingly curious gaze. Apparently, he was more interesting than her food. He did notice her pointing at a plate on the floor.
"Oh. Shall I take this to the kitchen to be cleaned?" He asked, halfway between hopeful that it wasn't what she wanted him to do and halfway hopeful she wasn't expecting him to eat from there. Because he knew that she didn't rank him above animals by very much, but it was still fairly insulting to be reminded of that fact constantly.
"That is what the staff is for. You're supposed to eat from that." Nevermind the fact that it was empty and dirty.
His eyebrows furrowed the tiniest bit, but his smile was still there. He looked at the plate for a few seconds, before returning his gaze to his master. "Oh." There was only the slightest bit of exasperation in his voice. Again, she was oblivious. He was very good at hiding the cues most people used to tell how another felt. "As I said, don't worry about me, Master." He repeated, still smiling.
To Louise, it was unsettling. Was he planning to die of starvation rather than serve her? That was a bit extreme... But it wasn't likely. Yeah, he was obedient, maybe he didn't want to trouble her? She supposed he'd probably eat with the staff or something. After all, bringing her familiar with her to eat hadn't been the brightest idea to begin with. Even so, it felt kind of odd to deprive someone of food. It was something that her parents had never done to punish criminals. Even the ones condemned to execution got one last meal. Still, Louise dared not comment on it and simply sighed resignedly, clasping her hands together in front of her face.
She knew Servants were supposed to stay silent most of the time, and they were to stay out of the nobles' way when at all possible. And when it wasn't, too. However, it was still kind of odd to realize that her servant merely stood behind her, smiling that same smile that he always had in his face, not even bothering
Indeed, she was correct on the second try. Not only did he not know their thanks, he did not know who the "Brimir" person was. Even if he drew some parallels to the Lifemaker from the whole spiel. It was... something unsettling to consider that there had been many who worshiped the Mage Of The Beginning. But of course, those concerns went unvoiced, as he was busy staring at nowhere while his master ate. In truth, he was merely continuing to speculate on his situation, trying in vain to find a way to cope with it as Louise ate silently.
So that was how the rest of his days would be, huh? He bit back the need to sigh. For the duration of the contract, he'd be stuck in that place.