The headmistresses office was much nicer this year than when they had last set foot in it. The once plain desk had been replaced with a more ornate piece that seemed to reflect the light in strange ways as it bounced and bent off of the mirrored finish. The walls were covered in bookshelves and on those bookshelves were rows and rows of books that seemed to have been leafed through many times, though the names on the spines of these ancient tomes would have induced a forced coma of boredom from any such reading attempt. Leon looked around and found his gaze drifting to the new embroidered carpet that covered an area of the flooring in an intricate design of the school’s coat of arms.

The face of a snarling gargoyle looked back up at him.

“Do you think it is too much?” the headmistress asked from behind her ornate desk.

“The desk is fine,” he answered back, not even stopping to wonder if she was talking to him or the other three in his party, simply answering the question. “But the books feel pretentious and the carpet, well we know this is the Grulik school of magic, no need to shout it into my face.” she nodded at his words and with a snap of her fingers the books disappeared as did the carpet, replaced by the more lived in feeling furniture.

“I need to get this correct, it is a matter of my career and reputation that is on the line, during the tournament we will be hosting several headmistresses and headmasters, meaning it is important to give a good impressions seeing as they carry a lot of weight in the political world,” she said as the four of them sat down, Lira opting to sit in Leon’s lap instead of using the chair laid out for her. “Do you know how this school gets its funding?” she asked, it was Krya who answered.

“The tuition fee that is charged for a student’s education and boarding at the school pay for that correct?” she asked.

“Most of it, yes” the headmistress nodded, her glasses slipping a few inches down her nose with the motion, absentmindedly she pushed them back up with an elegant move that had to be a muscle memory habit seeing as how second nature it had seemed when she had done it. “Though we do get quite a significant amount of money from the board, which is a group of individuals who donate vast sums of money to this school and therefore have a good deal of say in how the day to day operations are run here.”

“I was unaware that there was such a thing,” Krya said, her head cocked slightly to the side as she added this new knowledge to her vast store of information she kept locked away behind those blue ice eyes.

“They have, expressed a vast amount of interest in this tournament, and have tasked me with making sure we do well in the tournament, this is a problem, you would think that on our home territory with all of our students in attendance we would have a home-field advantage, but that is not the case, you see, we have not been able to win the tournament in the past nineteen years,” she smiled bitterly.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

“You want us to take part in this tournament,” Leon said matter of factly, cutting right to the reason they were called to this office.

“There are several events in the tournament, and quite a few of them rely on the strength of a familiar, and seeing as your familiar was rated SS rank last measurement Krya, and you Leon we don't even have tools that can measure up that far...” everyone’s minds drifted back to the testing room that had been there to test the potential for the familiars and their masters that the school had set up over the summer break.

Everyone had been super impressed when Fluffy had practically blinded everyone by grabbing the crystal and it had lit up with a burning blue light, causing everyone to look away for fear of going blind.

When Leon grabbed it, however…

The damned crystal exploded, not being able to contain the vast potential he had, the amount of power he flooded into that small crystal was ridiculous.

“What is in it for us?” he asked, snapping her out of the memory.

“You get to represent the pride of the school and show everyone that Grulik produces the best of the best?” she phrased it like a question, the sound of her voice incredulous as she spoke. Leon sat there waiting for her to go on, but when she didn't he stood, taking Lira with him, holding her in a princess style carry, and as he turned to walk out to leave the headmistress broke. “Fine.” she snapped, watching as he froze, one hand still on the door, ready to leave at a moment’s notice. “What do you want in exchange,” she growled at him, they both knew she needed him, she had to look good in front of the other headmasters, that and the board which seemed like it would have a significant amount of say in how the school ran, and while they couldn't remove her from her position they could make her life a living hell seeing as they could pull their funds at any point of time.

Leon paused, hand still on the door Lira still cradled in his arms. “I find the house we have to be lacking in the cleaning department, sure the spells keep it neat and tidy, but it lacks something human, something only a person can do, it is too sterile,” he said.

“I’ll send over the best butler we have, he is yours.” the headmistress said without hesitation.

“No, there was this maid, very unique,” he said.

“Tell me about her, I will make sure to send her over.” At this point the headmistress was pretty sure he was not looking for someone to clean the keep, it was not odd for a member of royalty to have dalliances with a maid or two, so she could quickly make the logic jumps in her head. Lira and Krya seemed to have come to a similar conclusion if the pair’s narrowed eyes were anything to judge by as they stared at Leon.

“She had deer horns,” oh no, the headmistress felt the start of a stress-induced headache forming behind her eyes as he spoke. “Green hair, and it also looked like her lower legs were also those of a deer.” she knew exactly who he was talking about, and this would mean she needed to have a discussion with the mistress of the grove about her daughter, she would not be looking forward to that, not at all. He opened the door and looked back at the headmistress, “Do I need to describe her more?” he asked and she shook her head numbly, no, she knew exactly who he was talking about. “I'll leave the details to you,” he said and walked out, his group following behind.

The headmistress slumped in her chair and placed her burning forehead against the cool surface of her desk. He was asking a favor that was much more than just getting a maid to play around with, but he probably knew that.

No.

She shook her head and corrected herself.

He definitely knew that.