I do not own Familiar of Zero.


"It didn't go well as I planned," William admitted as he took another large step forward, almost making him do a split.

"You know, it would make a lot more sense if you just told me what 'it' is." Siesta's somewhat tired voice carried through the courtyard.

The lack of sleep was starting to take a hold of the maid and the still rising morning sun was trying its best to blind her already itching eyes. For a second there she forgot why she was even outside watching the wandless mage walk around carrying a large wooden pole with him.

But all she had to do to refresh her memory, was to look down and see her tray filled with different kinds of foods, and a small flag that William had asked her to bring with her.

The wandless mage took a few more steps to the right before addressing her. "From what I've heard, she always wished she would have known about it way before." He stopped and let out a small sigh as he used the wooden pole to dig a small hole in the grass. "But I should have considered several facts, before saying anything."

After setting the pole down he walked to her and took the flag. It was a dark blue triangle flag with a golden fox in the middle of it. He let out a chuckle as he looked at the fox. Siesta raised her brow and wondered what was special about, she had just taken it from nearby storage. But she didn't voice her question and just continued to observe as he walked back to the pole.

"But now that I think about it, everything that I can say could cause the same kind of reaction." He tied the flag to the pole with a simple yet firm knot and set the pole into the dug spot.

"Well, maybe you could try and test the waters before revealing something new." Siesta's suggestion made him let out a small sigh.

There wasn't much he could reveal without just telling it straight. Maybe he should just reveal everything in one go? William shook his head at the thought, there was no telling what would happen if he did that.

He directed his focus in the present and aimed the pole high in the air towards one of the five towers' roofs. After making sure the pole was staying in its spot he turned towards Siesta.

"But if you knew you would have to do something to achieve your goal, would you do it regardless of unknown consequences that could happen?"

"You sure are putting me on the spot," Siesta mused as William crouched next to the pole and set his palms against the grass next to it. "How I would approach such a dilemma. Well… depends on the situation. For example, if my family would be in danger then I would do anything to help them despite what would happen. Or at least try, I guess?"

William just nodded before focusing his willpower on his hands making them glow. Before the maid could ask what he was doing she felt the air current flow past her towards the pole. Leaves and some grass flew towards William's hands as they kept getting brighter and brighter until he simply lifted his hands off the ground.

As soon as he did that a loud sound that almost sounded like an explosion went through the yard, making every student who had decided to enjoy their meal outside look at them in annoyance.

What they saw was a nobleman crouching on the ground in front of a small mound of dirt and a maid holding onto a tray. But what Siesta saw that they didn't was the short flash as the wooden pole flew through the air and vanished into the horizon under a second.

The students started murmuring and complaining about how the zero's summoned noble broke their nice quiet peace. But it didn't last long before they got back to their meals, most of them had already gotten somewhat used to loud noises unexpectedly appearing during the day.

Siesta took a few steps towards William just slightly shaken from the sound. "W-what was that for?"

"I don't know." William's carefree answer and a shrug just confused the maid even more. "I read instructions for this from a book and decided to try it now that I'm here."

"You are one odd man William," Siesta said as she handed the tray to him now that his hands were free. "Is there anything else you need or can I return to my work?"

The wandless mage was about to let her go before an idea formed in his head. Although he heard his mother tell him how it was "a rocky start", maybe he could test the waters as Siesta said.

He lifted his gaze back to Siesta who was still waiting for his permission to leave. "Actually, Siesta there is one more request I have for you."


It could explain so much. It could, but it shouldn't.

There was no way her mentor's lie could be true. As far as Louise knew, there was no way void could be connected to her problematic magic. If she remembered correctly, there weren't many solid writings about the founder's magic other than in some religious texts.

Now that she thought about it, her mind picked up a memory from the time when she "visited" the restricted parts of the library in hopes to learn anything about her magic. She managed to find a book which told about how the founder formed a gigantic explosion-

She stopped thinking about it before it could go any further. There was no way her explosions were void of magic's side effects.

Every single mage had small side effects regarding their element. Usually, noble children manifested some kinds of effects during their childhood which could give some hints as to what their main element could be. For example, fire mages could generate heat just with their hands, earth mages could cause light soil to move around them, and so on.

Although there was no concrete knowledge about the side effects of void magic. The pinkette would say that constant explosions weren't part of it. If she truly was a void mage then her magical attempts wouldn't create anything. A fire mage wouldn't create anything if they were trying to do water-based spells. The only way fire mage could perform water spells is for them to have an affinity to water as well.

But then again. The founder did create the other branches of elemental magic, so it could mean that void's connection to the other elements could mean it could create some effects despite trying unsuitable spells.

Louise let out a frustrated sigh and slammed her forehead against the desk. Again her reasoning led towards a heretical conclusion, but she couldn't help it. One part of her wanted to make sense of her element and the other constantly reminded her of the teachings of the Brimiric religion.

"Why can't I be just a fire mage?" she found herself asking with a depressed voice.

At the beginning of her life as a mage, when her magic started to manifest. She thought that her explosions were caused by her problematic affinity to fire. Sure she would have wanted to be a wind mage just like her mother, but she would have settled for anything.

Later now though, she has come to loathe the thought of her being a fire mage thanks to a certain Germanian. It didn't mean that she hated everything regarding fire magic, it was just whenever she saw fire magic, she couldn't stop herself from remembering her rival's nerve cracking laugh and how she made it look so easy.

She took a few deep breaths to try and calm herself, she shouldn't let those kinds of things get the better of her now. There were already plenty of other things on her plate. And besides, she heard some steps approaching the classroom's door.

The door opened revealing the familiar cut of black hair and tan-skinned face peeking through it.

"Is it alright for me to enter?" Her teacher made himself known with a calm question. Nothing stopped her long sigh from escaping her as she waved for him to step inside.

He opened the fully letting her see a floating tray beside him, which followed him inside. With a small wave of his wrist, the classroom door closed by itself and he pointed towards her desk. The tray neatly floated to her desk and clattered as William ended his spell letting gravity take hold of it.

There was a good-sized piece of a pie, and with a small sniff, she instantly recognized it as one of her favorites. "How did you kno- actually don't answer that." Although she did manage to cut herself off, it did make William smirk a little.

"So, are you ready for an actual lesson, or should I give you more time?" Louise rolled her eyes and gestured towards the food she was eating. "Don't worry, you can listen while eating."

She let a small annoyed huff and pointed towards her notes. Although her magic caused some of the other students to doubt her noble status, she was raised by proper noble parents. And eating while writing notes would only lead to a mess if her luck had anything to with it.

William didn't seem to get her message and instead grabbed an apple off her tray. "I don't think you need to write this down." He took a bite and started speaking much to Louise's annoyance. "We are just going through the basics."

"First of all," Louise said once she finished her bite. "I have to write down everything here and present it to the teachers later on. It's the reason why I'm here."

As far as she was sure, the academy's staff were currently busy teaching everybody else and had plenty of other work that needed to be done. Well, that was what she thought, but the headmaster and some teachers made her wonder if they truly were busy as they said.

"And stop talking when you're eating! Weren't you taught any manners?"

"Well, you tried…" He saw his student give him another glare. "But anyway! We're not in a ball or something. And besides, the last time I ate was back when I was at home before I was summoned here by a certain Vallière."

Louise huffed and responded, "I wanted a manticore, not you!"

"Ouch!" he complained in a sarcastic tone. "Way to make somebody unwanted."

Before she could tell him that it wasn't what she meant he raised his hand cutting her off while still eating the apple. "But let the bygones be bygones."

The pinkette rubbed her brow to try and ease her headache. At least she had a whole bottle of wine on her tray, she was starting to think she would need some soon.

He finished his apple and a more serious expression took hold of his face. "And... I apologize for causing discomfort for you. Despite what you might think, it wasn't my intention. I just hope we can set our predicament aside for now and move on to the subject at hand."

Louise was taken back a bit by his apologetic tone but nonetheless nodded in a sign of understanding.

"Alright," he started and walked right in front of the teacher's desk. "I can wait for you to finish your food and we can get started."

He didn't even have to wait five minutes before Louise had eaten her pie and set the tray on another desk right next to her's. The wandless mage could have sworn that he saw a small glint in his student's eyes as she took her notes

With a short cough, he cleared his throat and started his lesson. "We didn't get far, but if I remember correctly we were talking about willpower depletion, is that correct?"

Louise nodded while writing something down, making him raise his brow as he wondered what she was even writing about. But he ignored it for now and focused back on his teaching.

"I should've been more precise as to what I meant by willpower depletion. In truth, instead of depleting all of it, we leave a small part of it the body." He lifted the right sleeve of his white shirt, letting her see his forearm.

"As you know, mage's willpower originates from our bodies, hence why we grow exhausted under magical strain." A few spots of white light appeared on his skin. "The technique we'll be using today will help in training to control the flow of your willpower." The spots started gathering together before it started moving towards his fingers.

The wandless mage focused it towards his index and middle finger making it seem as if was just holding onto a small will-o-wisp. After a short movement of his wrist, the pinkette found herself looking at lines of light that formed her teacher's signature.

There was no denying that Louise was intrigued. She finally got to see wandless magic up close and despite it being just a fancy light show, it was something that nobody had done before in all of Halgenia's history!

Although now that she thought about it, there could be demons from the elven land that may have done something like that, but they weren't proper mages so they didn't count!

But as she was looking at the wandless magic happening in front of her. A question emerged from her head, one that had been on her mind since she heard about the willpower depletion.

"Why do we need to deplete our willpower?" she bluntly asked not even bothering to raise her hand since this wasn't a normal class.

William snapped his fingers making his signature vanish from the midair. "That's a good question," he started and leaned on the teacher's desk. "Simply put, it's easier to control a small amount of willpower instead of all of it. Sure you can try and learn wandless magic without the technique, but it could take years just to reach the first step."

He lifted his arms and soon he was seemingly sitting on an invisible armchair hovering above the desk. He crossed his legs and let them rest on the desk while he leaned back on his seat.

"But as you can see, I can in theory use my entire body as a makeshift wand." Seemingly realizing something he stopped leaning on his seat eyes wide. "Not that you should. Trust me, a pal of mine tried and it didn't end well."

The mage in training wrote that down while William floated down so that he was sitting on the desk.

"Unfortunately training to do spells without the use of focus items is incredibly time-consuming which is one of the reasons why some of the people in my time still carry wands. And there's the risk of the spell not working, but with enough practice, can minimize the chance of failure.

"As for me." He tapped the right side of his hip and noticed the lack of familiar weight. "I like to use my sword that I forgot in my room. But as for the learning process, there's one simple way to explain it."

He repeated the hand motion he did before, making his hand glow again, and drew a simple staircase pattern with three steps each taller than the one before.

"Now then, there are three steps," he began but soon stopped to think for a while. "Well, now that I remember there are technically four steps to it," he said and drew a fourth step at the bottom of the staircase.

"The first step is the easiest one. After a day or a week of practice, you will be able to manifest some effects of your element in your hands." He lifted his left palm and just held it there.

Despite not doing anything Louise could faintly see the air move around his hand accompanied by small sparks of light. Her quill moved across her notes as she wrote everything down. Although he didn't seem to be focusing on it, she opted to be as detailed as she could. There was no telling what her magic could cause if she weren't careful enough.

"As you can see wind mages can cause the air to move around their hands. A water mage can make water droplets appear, and so forth.

"After you manage to do this, you can move on to step number two!" With a small flick of his wrist, Louise's inkwell floated to his hand. "The second step takes from a month to a year to learn. And after you've learned it, you can use all the spells mages can do regardless of their affinity such as levitation, telekinesis, or line, a spell which I have used to draw the steps."

Louise raised her hand and once she got his attention gestured for him to give her inkwell back and asked, "Does the third step involve elemental magic?" He gave a small smile and nodded. "Then what's the fourth step for?"

He walked to pinkette's desk and gave her inkwell back. "Well, as you figured the third step is all about learning to do elemental spells. It can take a couple of years up to a decade to learn to do it safely. As for the fourth step, it is just basically honing your skills and maybe do your special spell."

Louise spent a good minute thinking what he meant until it clicked and her eyes went wide. If she understood correctly with enough practice a single mage could release their most powerful spell with just the tips of their fingers.

An image of her mother releasing her signature spell The Heavy Wind with her hand made her feel a mixture of amazement and fright. Well, fright for those who would stand in her way if she was ever to learn to do it.

William didn't seem to notice his student shudder at her own thought and continued his lesson. "I'm still going through the fourth step and I require my sword to do my special move."

He glanced at the clock on the wall and muttered something to himself. Before Louise could ask what was on his mind, she heard a couple of knocks on the classroom's door.

"Ah, just in time!" He smiled and walked to the door.

Louise couldn't stop herself from wondering who might be at the door. Perhaps the wandless mage had invited another teacher or maybe he ordered some maid to get her more pie.

Unfortunately for her, it was neither. Instead what she saw once he had opened the door was a blue-haired girl wearing the academy's school uniform. She had red-trimmed glasses over her blue eyes and was holding onto a staff longer than herself. She was one of the few second-year students who were shorter than the pinkette. So it didn't take long for Louise to figure out who she was.

"Tabitha? Why are you here and-" The pinkette had to cut herself as her eyes widened in realization. Despite the blue-haired girl being rather reserved and quiet, for some reason, she usually liked to hang around with a certain boisterous woman.

Louise's fears were confirmed when she started seeing familiar strands of red hair in the doorway. She almost knocked her chair down and started her sprint towards the door.

By luck or some miracle, William didn't notice his student's sudden move and was just about to welcome the two newcomers inside. When a pink projectile went by his sight, slamming the door shut making him let out a small yelp.

He was sure that his hand would have not been spared If he had offered his handshake as a way to welcome the students inside. Luckily for him, he didn't have broken bones but he was still a bit shaken as he glanced down and saw his student laying on her back and glaring daggers at him.

"Did you just dropkick the door?" he asked while trying to make sense of the situation.

But his question fell to deaf ears as he found himself pulled by his vest again. She was holding onto him with her right hand, and using her back and left hand to hold the door closed as if there was a rampaging dragon on the other side.

"What were you thinking?" Louise yelled through her teeth while twisting her teacher's vest.

William tried to get her hand off him but this time it seemed that she was holding onto him with a lot more force than previously. "I thought it would be a good idea-"

"Good idea?" His answer just made the pinkette twist his vest even more much to his displeasure. "If she were to hear your lie about me, the whole academy will know about it!"

"What he said about you? Care to let me in little Louise." The sing sang voice of her rival came through the door, albeit a bit muffled, it still made Louise grind her teeth together.

With a frustrated sigh, the pinkette let go of him and turned towards the door. She gave him one final glance and muttered, "Stay here!"

After that, she opened the door and stepped outside. Judging from his student's constant yells of "go away", he would say she was currently pushing them away.

Where she was taking them or what she was doing to them, he didn't know. But he couldn't help but rub his forehead and let out a long sigh.

"A rocky start indeed."