ALL NOVEL Chapter 3: Who Is She?
Zach continued wandering around campus after eating until he found the dorms. He was looking forward to finding out more about his angel. He had dreamed of becoming a summoner for a long time, after all.
As the young master of one of the great noble houses of the empire, Zach was naturally entitled to more than a shared dorm room. There was also the fact that the Academy was aware of his uncanny relationship with accidents, so they happily put him in his own suite.
Zach looked around the room where he would be spending his next four years unless he got expelled or graduated early. It wasn't that different from his room at the mansion since it was decorated with the same furniture.
He had his bed, desk, wardrobe, towels, and his favorite mug. However, his wardrobe was empty, so he had been a little faster than the servants in charge of moving things from the mansion to the dorm.
Only a moment later, the door to Zach's suite opened up and a silver-haired maid let herself in while carrying two heavy suitcases.
"Oh, Young Master, you're…" The maid who looked too small to be handling two such big suitcases with ease froze and dropped the cases on the floor.
She slowly raised a hand and pointed at Yanael before speaking with an icy voice.
"Young Master, who is she?"
"Oh, she's—" Zach didn't even have time to answer before the maid interrupted him.
"No, I don't want to hear it! After all that I went through for your parents to let me accompany you…! How could you?" The silver-haired maid turned around and began storming off.
"Nora!" Zach sank to his knees and reached out with a hand toward Nora's back.
"It's not what it looks like!" Zach tearfully cried out and hung his head in despair, looking like a beat dog with all fours on the floor.
"Master, am I alone not good enough?" To Zach's surprise, the golden-haired angel maid knelt next to him and placed a hand on his back while looking at him with worried eyes.
Zach and Nora looked at Yanael in surprise. Nora hurriedly reentered the room and closed the door behind her after making sure the hallway was empty.
"Y-you can talk?" Zach's eyes were wide open in surprise. As far as he knew, not even S-rank familiars could talk.
"Yes? Do you not want me to?" Yanael was slightly confused and tilted her head. She didn't quite understand what Zach and Nora had been up to.
"No, of course, I want you to! It's great!" Zach smiled at Yanael and stood up before asking her to stay there while he brought Nora to a corner.
"Looking at your reaction, that is your summoned familiar, right? I mean, I heard the rumors, but you're not pranking me, are you?" Nora glanced at Yanael before removing the arm Zach had wrapped around her shoulders and jabbing him in the ribs with a finger.
"Yes, that's her. No, I'm not pranking you. Are familiars supposed to talk?" Zach also glanced at Yanael before looking at Nora with a questioning expression.
Nora shook her head. "I've never heard of anything like it, even from other humanoid familiars. Granted, you're the first summoner in a couple of generations in your family, and I'm sure it would be a pretty strict secret if it's happened before."
"Do you think you could ask someone about it?" Zach narrowed his eyes.
"I can send a letter to the family, but does it matter?" Nora tilted her head.
"I guess not." Zach hesitated for a moment before nodding, but Nora grabbed him before he could return to the confused Yanael.
"Hey, hey, hey, Young Master. You can't leave yet, you know?" Nora held back Zach with a firm grip on his shoulder that he couldn't escape from.
Zach sighed.
"Fine…Her name's Yanael. She's an S-rank battle maid angel."
"That's not what I meant, and you know it." Nora tightened her grip and leaned in close to Zach's face.
"I have no idea what you're talking about. I do know that I'm the master and you're the servant in this master-servant relationship, though," Zach obstinately said while trying to wrench away Nora's sleek and calloused hand without success.
"Ah, ah, ouch! That hurts! If you don't let me go, I'm telling mom." Zach glared at Nora while clutching his shoulder.
"Try it, your mom loves me." Nora shrugged but still let Zach go.
"I never said my mom." Zach rubbed his sore shoulder.
Nora looked at Zach with alarm.
"You don't mean…?"
"Behave or I'm asking your mom to retrain you from the ground up."
"You wouldn't…!" Nora took a step back and dramatically held her hand on her chest while looking at Zach as if she couldn't believe he would say something like that.
Zach crossed his arms.
"Wanna bet?"
"Tch." Nora crossed her arms with a click of her tongue and looked away from Zach, signaling her defeat.
"You will tell me about your maid obsession one day, though."
Zach smiled triumphantly as he ignored her final words. He was tempted to tease Nora even more, but it wasn't worth it when she didn't have anything more to lose. So, he contained himself and turned around.
Zach focused on the angel maid who had now composed herself and waited patiently for the two to finish whatever it was they were doing.
"Yanael."
"How may I be of assistance, Master?"
Zach was giddy just hearing such a beautiful woman address him as her master while wearing a maid dress.
"Well, you can begin by telling me more about yourself, where you're from, why you're a maid, and how summoning works."
Zach was looking forward to uncovering the secrets of both Yanael and the ancient art of summoning familiars, which was something the empire's scholars could only theorize about. With a talking familiar, couldn't he get all the answers he wanted?
"No."