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Bible of Ichor: Septet for the Dead

Giselle de Farry

Undead Princess, de Farry

---

Aleksiya was not the only one that frowned at the extent of Kordelia’s renewed transformation. Aside from the obvious gaucheness of it all, it was simply not in the style of the beast princess, even one as demented and corrupted as she was now. Her strange movements after Aleksiya’s attack all but confirmed the woman’s poor body was being puppeted.

That offended Giselle greatly, but she remained cautious. Whoever was doing that was dangerous indeed if they could do such a thing to a vampire lord. She frowned as the thing that Kordelia had twisted into howled, spurring the beasts around them into… heading for the village. Narrowing her eyes, she hoped that the other lords in the village would be able to defend a second wave, as she and Aleksiya were in no position to intervene.

The smaller vampire was not the only one to notice the strange red thread, and she nodded to acknowledge it. The maid atop the pillar, however, had most of her attention. Normally, she looked upon such servants very favorably. She kept an impressive knight corps of combat maids herself, doting on them far more than a sovereign really should have, and she still had a soft spot for the cute maids some of her peers and other powers had, too.

She was not so lucky to encounter a surviving maid from her household, although the dress looked strangely close to a certain Maison from eons past, even if it didn’t quite match the uniform.

The unknown maid here, however, received a colder welcome than either would ever receive.

“You style yourself as a maid, yet I can already tell whatever master or mistress you may belong to was lacking in your education with manners like yours.” Chiding the maid as if she were a disappointed mother talking to an unruly child, she moved even as she spoke, sword out, aiming for the thread. Still, she didn’t hesitate to get information the good, old-fashioned way.

“Introduce yourself.”

The Maids Guide to Demon Hunting

Polina Laye

Farisian Maid

---

Polina looked unamused at Elizstrazia’s braggadocio. “It’s serviceable,” she replied, using the same dull, placid tone that the maid favored for moments like these. Inwardly, she was ready to chortle, and it took all her will to maintain the façade of composure that was her brand. “…As long as you let Tiki do her work.”

The Farisian maid took the rest of her basic measurements, but let the tailor-maid take care of the rest…

She watched back with that same placid face, even as she internally questioned her life choices as said maid continued to grope and feel up the new demon maid, all ostensibly for necessary measurements. Polina didn’t believe it, but she respected the hustle. Maybe there were some benefits to acting a little more unhinged, after all.

Nonetheless, it had taken some effort, but Eliz finally was stuffed into her tailor-maid tailor-made dress. Polina nodded in approval at the completed uniform.

She gave a serious answer this time, even if she crooked an eyebrow at Tiki’s swift exit. “You look proper.”

Fire Emblem: Crestfallen

Parthenia Harland Ciran

of House Ciran

---

For the most part, Parthenia decided to leave Lapis alone when she moved into her room. Most of her things –consisting of a trio of trunks that contained most of the things she needed or wanted to bring to the academy—had already been delivered to her side of the assigned room, and she quickly moved to meticulously unpack and arrange her belongings.

When her reluctant roommate announced her intentions to abandon her use of the room, though, Parthenia had affixed Lapis with a withering stare and insisted that she use the room. She wasn’t sure just how touched in the head this girl had become, but she wasn’t going to let her just sleep outside. Despite her insistence, the next morning she had discovered Lapis had never used the room, and Parthenia resolved to harass the girl into actually sleeping in a bed like a normal girl.

She still wanted a roommate, after all.

She rose early, as was typical for her these days. After a quick stretching routine, she broke her fast in the cafeteria with some simple bread, some cheeses, and some fruit before she made her way to class. Surprisingly, she was neither early nor fashionably late, but plain on-time, arriving as everyone else had.

Curiously, their instructor was absent. On the first day?

Predictably, Parthenia had questions… as did everyone else. Sliding into a seat on the second row, she gave a wave to Doric and Sherry before catching Andrion’s wink. Preparing to accept the offering of wrapped sandwich, she shot Dory a scowl as he got in between her and free food. “Rude,” she sniffed, shaking her head at him as she set her bag down. “I’ll remember that.”

Nonetheless, she didn’t protest as the sandwich was handed to her roommate. No, she had other words to say to her. “One of us should tell him. We are paying for this education, after all. But never mind that. Where were you last night?”

Final Fantasy: Lightseekers

---

With the entire party now truly in the thick of battle, Éliane was in her element as she slashed aside another blightbeast, casting the creature aside in a rip of red as she continued to advance alongside her counterpart from Osprey. Unlike Izayoi, she was quieter warrior in the heat of battle, saving her breath in the favor of ruthless efficiency as they savaged the pack of beasts. The ambush had been long broken, and now it was time to show these little beasts just how mistaken they had been for their transgressions.

Éliane noticed the pack leader at about the same time as Izayoi had. The Skaelan was tempted to take that challenge on herself, but she knew that she wasn’t equipped to meet that sort of attack without some heavy maneuvering. Before the other girl began to speak, she could tell from her body language that she had a plan.

“Okay,” she responded with a nearly casual tone, trusting her to her job. “I’ll take care of the rest.”

Her muscles tensed as she her attentions turned to the remainder of the pack. Her bullets were freshly chambered into her gunblade, and with a grin, she struck out as she met the rest of the creatures with a flurried attack. Rather than shooting from afar, where the jumpy creatures were more likely to successfully dodge, she quickly closed the distance in a blitz, shooting at one point blank and hacking at another. Pressing forward, she continued to advance, not giving the beasts the chance to recover and regain their momentum and disrupt Izayoi’s attack and recovery.

With the number of blightbeasts around her, she made sure to count her shots to not be caught off-guard. As she continued her small crusade against the pack, she became aware of Arton and Galahad’s presence in addition to Neve, appreciating their support now that she had it. She was confident of her position, but with the pack continuing to swarm, the extra help was appreciated. The sheer weight of numbers meant that some of them had finally been able to properly respond to her frenzied charge; only Galahad’s timely counter-charge had prevented her from being put into an awkward position. She gave him a nod. “They have no sense of self-preservation. Not that it matters.” At the very least, they’d make this path safer for future travelers.

With another step, she rang out another shot at an approaching blightbeast, before she reentered the fray.

The Maids Guide to Demon Hunting

Polina Laye

Farisian Maid

---

“That may be so, but presentation is everything,” Polina chided, unable to help herself from getting the last word in in this regard. She knew from experience that there was a golden zone between cluttered and uncannily clean, a living space that was presentable yet still looked lived in. The Farisian maid felt that the Maison just about had that look, although Tiki’s room obviously did not count in her eyes.

Seeing that nobody else was making a move to actually measure her, she fetched a tailor’s measuring tape that Tiki had lying around in her cluttered mess, she unrolled the instrument and approached Eliz, ignoring the current byplay between the cranky tailor and her loud guest.

Polina gave the demon maid to be a firm command and warning. “Hold still.”

Wrapping the tape around her bust, she began to take her measurements. Now how would the demon react…?

Bible of Ichor: Septet for the Dead

Giselle de Farry

Undead Princess, de Farry

---

Giselle hissed in displeasure as her bullets found their mark, but still failed against Kordelia’s ridiculous armor, the misshapen pieces of blood-emulated lead sloughing off her ‘skin.’ The projectiles dissipated on reflex, always conscious of saving her blood even before these new days where she had to be proactive about conservation.

She would have to try something else… but against a peer opponent –a peer that specialized in combat, when Giselle’s specializations were in a rather different direction—meant that the cards were quite stacked against them even with a three-to-one advantage.
Where was Luna, anyway?

She grimaced as her defense faltered, only to be saved by Aleksiya’s swift intervention. She gave the smaller vampire lord a nod of appreciation before continuing to fall back on the defensive. She’d clearly gained the beast princess’s attention now; it didn’t take much communication for her to convey that Aleksiya would need to press her advantage now.

“Kordelia. You insult my reputation and my pride as princess ambassador if you think I of all people was teasing you, let alone making fun of you,” she replied, as calmly as she could while being attacked. She was not her favorite among all her vampire peers, no, but Giselle never hated the woman. Whatever was corrupting her had severely twisted her mind.

Giselle attempted to dance away, but was too slow to entirely avoid Kordelia when she went in for a head bash. Thankfully, she wasn’t gored by the antlers now growing from her head, but the princess staggered back, momentarily dazed. Realizing her vulnerability, she brought both sword and gun up into a protective guard, firing again for the distraction while she kept her sword up as she continued to jump back.

She idly noted that only her face seemed to be unarmored, but Giselle was reluctant to directly shoot her there.

The Maids Guide to Demon Hunting

Polina Laye

Farisian Maid

---

Polina recalled meeting Tiki when she had first settled into the Maison, and like everyone else, was fitted for a maid uniform in the style of the Violet Garden. She’d gotten a few uniforms of top quality from the seamstress and tailor, but the last time she had met her was her first day here. Reclusive, indeed. Her eyes roamed about the room as she entered, taking in the mess…

“I don’t think you’ve made any progress on cleaning since the last time I was here,” the Farisian maid commented, a minor tone of disapproval in her voice. A fellow maid should always have tidiness as a top priority, after all. Tiki was no exception.
She decided not to make a big deal of it though, as they were here for something else.

Elizstrazia seemed to be making a farce of undressing, not that she had much to take off. This was the first time Polina had seen a scale demon’s pride up close and… it was more insufferable than she realized. That wasn’t to say she didn’t appreciate what she saw, though. She batted for both teams, after all.

She suspected it would be far mor difficult to get a uniform on her than getting her to walk around naked. Perhaps there was merit in considering that idea, but for now… she got into position to stop a potentially writhing scale demon from squirming out of a measurement.

Bible of Ichor: Septet for the Dead

Giselle de Farry

Undead Princess, de Farry

---

Giselle was momentarily surprised when her blade landed, but didn’t penetrate. She hesitated, unsure of what she was dealing with for a moment, but luckily, Kordelia didn’t immediately capitalize on her mistake, allowing the white-haired vampire to briefly withdraw to evaluate the situation.

The Farisian princess’s mind raced. By all rights, even with a tarnished blade, a silver sword should cut through almost anything undead and ‘unholy’ by the standards of the followers of the dead serpent of creation and destruction. If Kordelia was that powerful to negate such power, then the two of them should already be dead.

Some sort of skin-like armor, then. That was the main flaw of using a silver weapon. Annoying.

She came to that realization just in time for Kordelia to finally shift her attention to her. Stifling the urge to curse, she leapt back; in a moment, she had her gun out in her second hand, just in time to see that the still all-too-fast vampire lord had gone for a feint. She grimaced as the watery tentacles shot out towards her. “A little help here, Aleksiya,” Giselle said simply, before immediately changing course, snapping off a pair of shots towards Kordelia, before she slashed out with her sword at the tendrils that she couldn’t dodge to break free of the trap that she was weaving around her.

Final Fantasy: Lightseekers

---

Éliane had been on guard ever since they entered the tall grass, fully aware of the ambush potential from both apex predators and other opportunistic creatures even in the daylight. In fact, she was about to further inquire about the potential threats the local fauna might pose when her question was answered for her. She had never seen a blightbeast before; they were not native to Skael or the places that she had traveled, but she immediately reacted the moment she saw the monkey-like creatures bull through the tall grass and into their midst.

Unlike some of her companions, she didn’t immediately abandon her chocobo, preferring to cling onto the higher vantage as long as she was able, but she wasn’t an expert rider, either. With only seconds to react, she drew her weapon even as a beast flew at her—it seemed the things liked the tactic of trying to knock riders off their mounts. Had she been simply wielding a sword, remaining on the chocobo might have been a liability, but a snapshot from her gunblade took the creature out from the running, even as she slashed out with the blade to divert the falling creature’s momentum elsewhere. That… only partially succeeded, and she had to wildly dodge the falling body so that she wouldn’t get knocked back by it, to her chagrin.

A ding to her panache aside, confident that the immediate threat to herself was dispatched, she quickly scanned the new battlefield. She was satisfied to see that nobody had died yet, though Neve had gotten close before Galahad had intervened. With the ambush mostly broken for the moment, she took to shoring up where help was needed. Finally leaping off her chocobo, she counter-charged the blightbeasts that had taken after Arton, falling into concert with Izayoi as she took on the two beasts that had slipped her grasp. She placed two shots into the side of one; the other quickly wised up and evaded as she tracked it, before leaping at her. Expecting this, she dodged to the side as it entered her personal space. Her blade cut through its fur before its claws could tear at her exposed throat; with a frown, she kicked it away before its blood could soil her clothes too much.

Then, Izayoi’s spell cut through the grass, revealing the remaining ambush. “Right! On it!” Briefly acknowledging the samurai, she let a small grin creep across her face at the challenge. She sprinted forward, already shooting as she engaged the remainder of the pack, using her own little wind spell to propel herself all the faster.

Fire Emblem: Crestfallen

Parthenia Harland Ciran

of House Ciran

---

Had Parthenia had lesser self-control, the disappointment on her face would have been palpable. Oh, sure, she had still outplayed Leonid at his game, but there was little better than seeing someone who deserved it eat crow… or rather, flowers, in this case. Not every plot or play could always be a complete winner, though. He had bowed out, but he had given her so much more ammunition in doing so… well, overdoing it was a thing, too, so she held back a bit.

“A social butterfly you are not, to refuse such a flower,” she chided, even as he turned faked disrespect into a real one. Parthenia still wasn’t sure if the girl was actually a lowborn, but that didn’t even matter, here. As far as she was concerned, any lowborn student that had made it to the academy had earned their place, and was worthy of their station and place alongside their noble peers.

Even if some of the commoners did look rather… unorthodox.

“Really, what a poor performance,” she lamented, as the Sylmare heir beat a swift retreat before Parthenia could properly chastise him for the real breaches in etiquette. Well, there was always later.

Turning back to Lapis, she canted her head slightly as the girl made her introduction. Parthenia was sure they had met before, even if she insisted otherwise. She idly suspected Lapis was lying in some way. She was tempted to press her on it, but thought better of it. Everybody had their skeletons in the closet, and the way she had introduced herself was telling in and of itself… Well, she had the entirety of school to figure it out. Patience was the virtue of nobles, after all.

“Is that so?” she answered. “What a strange title you have there, but a pleasure nonetheless,” she continued, with a little curtsy. She had a good guess of what that implied, shifting her perceptions of Lapis’ upbringing slightly, even if she was still skeptical of her implied origins as a commoner. A very, very poor one. She didn’t comment on it. “If Leonid Sylmare decides to give you anymore trouble, don’t be afraid to come to me. Disrupting some of the self-important or harebrained schemes of my peers is a bit of a pastime for me.” Parthenia gave her a grin before she excused herself to mingle with the other students as the tour continued, properly, this time.

The little group tour was more or less what she expected; she took a closer notice of the mess hall, enjoying the alluring smell of food being prepared for the coming dinner banquet, but glossed over the cathedral itself. The architecture was pretty, though. The Academy itself she would explore on her own time.

Lastly came the dorms and their room assignments, which surprised Parthenia on the sheer audacity of some of the assignment penned on the parchment outside. To her absolute delight, if she didn’t know better, it seemed almost as if the combinations were designed for maximum chaos among the student body. Cohabitation? Roland and Elivinthia? Sherry and Leon? Perhaps she would have to reevaluate her opinion of the Archbishop. Either he was as clueless as a duck or he was a master of her craft, and a kindred spirit…

She would have to find out.

Her own assignment with Lapis was interesting, too. It wasn’t as interesting as being paired with Elivinthia or as amusing as sharing a room with Sherry or Roland, and would make a late-night liaison –if she wanted one—harder, but Parthenia could certainly work with it. It would make uncovering Lapis’s mystery easier, she was sure.

“It would seem we’re one of the few girls with a traditional dorm experience,” said Parthenia with some amusement when she found her dormmate again. “The archbishop has an interesting sense of humor…”