Chapter 12 – The Familiar

Nick sat in the castle gardens for a few more hours, enjoying his tea, the late afternoon, and memories of the two women who had so far caught his attention. 

'It is much too early to say...but I like them both. Of that, I have no doubt...It is not enough, however. I need to find someone I cannot live without, not just someone I find attractive or could be friends with. That will be my best indication, I think. There are others I have thought of this way, but it never went anywhere...or couldn't go anywhere. Not like I could pause the world-ending invasion so that I could pursue a deeper relationship with the women I met...'

Nick's head suddenly shot to the side, looking at a room on the 3rd floor of the castle. 

'Something is not right...'

Before he could even rise from his seated position, a wave of phantom pain hits his soul. Nick's eyes widen and he is up on his feet in an instant. Nick takes off towards the castle at a sprint that would put a runner to shame.

 'Wish I could teleport...but that would summon the entire knight garrison to the castle. The wards and alarms are not easily gotten around, especially since I reinforced them. Just gotta hoof it the old-fashioned way.' Nick thinks as he runs at his quickest speed.

A maid cleaning the castle thought she had seen a ghost as a blur passed her and a rush of wind soon followed. She screamed and fell to the ground as her traditional maid skirt flipped up over her head.

Thus the legend of the perverted castle ghost was born.

'Oops, sorry...' Nick winces internally, "But seriously...sheer blue lace...quite bold Miss Maid, quite bold."

Nick makes his way through the castle in record time and rounds the corner of the kitchen, coming to a sliding halt, to see it completely devoid of people except for one crumpled lump of black clothes and white hair laying on the ground. Luckily, the staff had been given a week off as the royal family wished to continue to enjoy Nick's cooking, otherwise, the woman's form would have caused quite the stir. 

The woman is dark-skinned with light cream-colored fur covering her forearms and hands as well as her shins and feet. Most of this fur was not currently visible, as she wore clothes that some might call ninja or assassin garb, but Nick could see patches from where the woman's outfit had been cut open. She has long white hair that spills from her head and surrounds her prone form. Her hair is only visible due to her mask being absent. On top of her head are two, foot and a half in length, cream-colored bunny ears that lay flat on the ground in front of her, unmoving.

The woman's breathing is shallow as she shakily looks up to him, her red eyes trembling with unshed tears. 

"Master...I have failed you...I feel...so...cold..." The woman says in little more than a hushed whisper. 

Nick walks up to her, casually, and crouches before her. He then grabs her by the base of her ears, none too softly, and lifts her head to look at him.

"Enough of the dramatics, Serina, I can tell that you only have a shallow cut to your stomach through our bond. What happened?"

The woman, Serina, stares up at her master with tears of indignation falling from her eyes. 

"Master is too cruel! Your familiar is mortally wounded and you can't even show her a little compassion!?!" The bunny girl cries out in outrage, her voice completely different than it was a few seconds ago.

*Cough* "I...I think I might get better, if only..." She trails off, taking on the same tone of a wounded soul as before. 

Sighing, Nick plays along, "If only?"

"If only I got some head pats and a good scratch behind the ears..." 

Nick stares at her, hard. She stares back. The moment stretches for several seconds until she clicks her tongue.

*Tsk* "Master used to be much easier and more fun to tease." Serina says, breaking eye contact first. 

Pulling a red potion from his inventory, Nick smiles sweetly at Serina."You have two choices. 1) You tell me exactly what happened, quickly, and you get the potion normally. 2) You continue this charade and I give it to you boiling hot. Choose wisely~."

Serina is on her knees before him in a flash. 

"Master, I have come to report on the kidnapping of Lady Cow Tits," Serina replies, switching completely from her previous tone to one of reverence.

"Boiling it is," Nick says, the same happy smile on his face.

"W-Wait! I-I meant that I have come to report the kidnapping of Lady Matilda!" Serina says quickly as she sees the potion in the bottle start to bubble in Nick's hands. 

"What. Happened?" Nick says slowly, annunciating the words clearly.

"To be honest? I have no idea. I was just doing my rounds, sneaking to and fro, implicating the corrupt nobles as you told me to do, when I came back to the castle to enjoy some of the food that I wasn't able to try last night. That was rude, by the way. You didn't even invite me! You should treat this poor me with more kindness and let me eat your cooking like you used...to..." She trails off seeing the potion bubbling even faster now. 

"A-Anyway, I saw some Elves attempting to sneak into the castle. They were bad, Master. Like really, really bad. I couldn't ignore their loud steps even if I was busy stuffing my face with cookies that I took from the storage cabinet...Just as an example, mind you...So I decided to follow them and see what their plan was. I was certainly not doing this to avoid the work you gave me, I want to make that point very clear."

Nicks's smile was showing cracks as she told her tale, so the bunny decided to hurry it up a bit. 

"They went to Lady Cow Ti- *Ahem* Matilda's room and there was some shouting, followed by a scuffle. I think it went like this:" She says, taking on the air of a haughty Elf.

"Mathienne! You will come back and be married off to a Duke as a political favor, consider yourself lucky!"

She then takes on Matilda's part but portrays her super dramatically. 

"No! I will never go with you! My heart already belongs to another!" She flails her arms in a cross pattern, showing her dislike of the notion.

"You dare to go against the will of the Empress!?! If you will not come willingly, then we will have to take you by force!" Serina continues once again as the haughty elf.

"Just try me! I will let nature retake you!" Matilda's? voice.

"So, yeah, they started fighting and I was just sitting outside the room like, 'Hmm...I wonder if I should get involved?' But then I was like, 'Nah, what do I care about some Elves?" But THEN I was like, 'Wait, isn't Boobs-For-Brains one of the girls Master is interested in? I bet he will reward me for rescuing her!' So I burst into the room and kill, like, 18 of the 20 Elves in a couple of seconds. I was all like, 'Bam Bam Bam' and they were all like, 'Where the hell did this girl come from!?'" Serina does some shadow boxing and acts out the Elves, yet again. "Right before I got them all, however, one pulled out a honing dagger and it nearly impaled me! I am still bleeding here, by the way. Can I have the non-boiling potion now?"

Seeing the glint of unamusement in Nick's eyes and him not stopping his happy (scary) smile, Serina gulped. The bubbling of the potion was decreasing, though, so she continues eagerly.

"O-Okay, so the one who threw the dagger grabbed onto Matilda, who was distracted by me, for some reason, and the other one opened a Gate Scroll. A fucking Gate Scroll, Master! I am quick, but I am not quick enough to catch them after using that. They don't even make those anymore, ya know? So, anyway, they teleported and I came right away to tell you! See, aren't I a good familiar? Feel free to give me some head pats as a reward." She finishes proudly, her hands on her hips in triumph.

"You came right away, huh?" Nick asks, his voice frosty.

She flinches and shyly looks away. "I was going to report to you...right after I got some more cookies..."

Nick puts the potion away and shakes his head while rubbing the bridge of his nose with a sigh.

"You aren't going to praise me or heal me!?!" Serina exclaims in shock and indignation. 

"I healed you the second I touched your ears, my silly bunny," Nick says and pulls her in for a hug. Despite his cold act, she was one of the people he cared most for in this world. "You scared me. I thought you were actually in trouble."

"Master..." Serina says weakly, genuine emotions come to the front of her mind as she buries her face into his neck with the hug. She very much enjoyed his warmth. "...I'm sorry for being dramatic. I'm alright now, I promise. I won't die again, I already swore that to you!"

"I hate seeing you hurt...It is the reason why I keep you as far from danger as possible. If I lost you...I don't know how I would live with myself."

"But...Don't you have 98 potions of Revive Familiar left?" She asks, her face pulling away from the hug to look at him quizically.

Nick pats his familiar's head and explains with a sad smile, "In order to use them, you have to die. That means I have to find your corpse and use the potion on your dead body. Seeing you like that once...that was already one too many times."

"Master..." 

The two share a moment as Nick pats her head and scratches behind her ears just the way she likes. 

Nick had contracted with the Void Rabbit Serina 5 years ago. He had found her in a pocket dimension of a long-dead mage, frozen in stasis and barely alive. Back then, she was little more than a tiny ball of black fur with red eyes. For some reason, his 6th sense told him she was the best familiar for him. One of a kind, as she was the last of her race. At the time, he had really wanted to ignore his 6th sense. He wanted to contract with a dragon or a phoenix or something cool, not a bunny! It seemed childish to have a rabbit as one's familiar...He had never been so happy to be wrong. 

Her powers were as mysterious as her origins. She was able to control the void in many ways, use a huge range of void magic spells, a long-forgotten branch of magic, and open void portals by ripping apart reality for a quick moment. This allowed her to teleport wherever she wanted, so long as she had seen the place before.

Nick had trained her to the best of his ability by following the guidelines of his 6th sense. Magical Beasts follow a path similar to the way cultivators did on the Immortal Islands. That is to say, they form a Magical Core, or Beast Core as it was commonly called, then sucked up the magical energy from the foes they defeated or from areas of abnormally dense mana. Through this process, their core expands to a certain point and then contracts as it purifies the collected mana. This process is called Compression. As the monster's core becomes stronger, the strength of the Magical Beast multiplies exponentially. These compressions have different grades that are based on the color of the monster's core.

All beasts are born with a black core. This is worthless to adventurers and is carved into ornaments or simply thrown away. From there it follows the color wheel, becoming more and more pure and concentrated in magical essence as it goes along. The first compression is violet, the second is purple. Then, in order, there is Dark Pink, Light Pink, Dark Red, Light Red, Dark Orange, Light Orange, Dark Yellow, Light Yellow, Dark Green, Light Green, Dark Blue, and Light Blue. After that, they step out of the realm of mere Magical Beasts and become Legendary Beasts. This usually results in an evolution of the monster into something better, something more. The ranks after that take on the sheen of metal and are Iron, Copper, Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, Mythril, and Adamantine. To be honest, it might go further than that, but that is all that Nick was aware of. 

Serina was currently a Platinum Cored Legendary Beast...Kinda. She was unique, to say the least.

Serina's tiny fluffy body had gone through no physical changes at all as her core compressed, and Nick was very worried that she would simply be a snack to a bigger monster down the line. By her Legendary Compression, the time at which a Light Blue cored monster becomes an Iron cored monster and is at about the same strength as an Adult Dragon, she had suddenly shone in blackish-purple light and transformed into a humanoid female body...completely naked. Nick was beyond words at the change and the first thing Serina did was tackle him and demand head pats.

This was the true start of their wonderful relationship and friendship. It happened only 3 years ago, but Nick felt like she had been a part of his life forever.

Serina had always worked as a front-line fighter with Nick, but when she died...

After 'That Event' Nick had forced her into a shadow operations role. One of intelligence gathering, evidence planting, sneaking, and assassination. She took to it very well and has become irreplaceable to him, not that she was ever replaceable to begin with. Her new role was not without risks of its own, but he told her where to go and what to do, so it was at least somewhat safe. Normal people were not a threat to either of them, even at that point. Though this recent Eleven attack brought back memories of 'That' day like a thorn to his heart...

'Let's not think about this anymore...She is fine and there are important matters at hand. I need to focus on Matilda's kidnapping.' Nick decides. 

"Alright. I need to see my father and explain the situation. I cannot blindly rush in and save her, as I may have in the past. This will have political ramifications and, possibly, start a war. Kidnapping the Kingdom's Head Mage is no laughing matter."

Nick breaks the hug and starts walking towards the castle with purposeful steps.

Serina takes a big gulp of air and clenches her fists. This was it. This was the moment she has been waiting for and dreading the past week. Ever since he returned and made his announcement. She could wait, as this kidnapping matter was very serious, but she decided last night that she would not wait any longer. After spying *Ahem* watching over her master and his interactions with the Boobie Monster and Lady Harlott (Her name for Scarlett)...She knew her chance was slipping away and that she had to do it. She didn't know if she could work up the courage again if she waited. This was the perfect chance, right now. Her place had always been by her Master's side and...she needed to at least try.

"Um...Master?" Serina asks in a small voice. 

Nick rolls his eyes at his familiar's antics, but when he turns, he only sees a girl full of shyness and uncertainty, not his usually boisterous companion. He quickly returns to her and puts his hands on her shoulders, reassuringly.

"What's up, Rina?" He asks softly.

Smiling at the pet name he had given her years ago, her heart is filled with courage once again and she soldiers on."Um...Well...I-I wanted to ask if I can go to High Academy as well..."

Nick tilts his head in confusion. "Of course you can come if you want. You can just watch from inside my Soul Sp-"

"I want to go on my own and experience things outside your Soul Space." She says firmly.

Nick ponders her request and doesn't really see a reason to deny her wish...but still...

"...Can I ask why?" He hedges slowly.

She takes a deep breath and looks up at him with rosy cheeks.

"Because Master-..." She starts but shakes her head and clenches her fists even tighter. Her face is completely red now and even her long ears have a hint of red to them as they twitch violently.

She firms her resolve once again with another deep breath, says, "Because you, Nick, are going there to look for a wife. I want to be your wife, your mate. I want a chance as well." She says with firm resolve...that crumbles nearly instantly after her declaration.

"I-I mean if it is alright with Master. I...I really care for Master and I know you want to fall in love...You probably could never think of a me like that...I am just a beast, after all...I-I'm sorry for asking. I will go and continue my work. Sorry for buggin-"

"Stop. Serina, please, stop." Nick's brain broke for about 20 seconds there. That was a new record! When he finally came back to himself, it was just in time to catch the bunny girl's arm and pull her into a hug.

"First off," Nick starts while holding her close so that she can't run away. He pulls back his head to look directly into her eyes as he speaks his mind. "You are not a simple 'Beast.' You are a proud Legendary Beast. Something that only a few become every century. You worked hard and earned that, so never forget it. Secondly, you have become an extraordinarily beautiful woman that any man would be lucky to be with, beast or not. Lastly, I don't mind you going with me...however..."

Sighing, Nick continues, "I have always been 100% honest with you and I have no intention of stopping that now. Serina, you are my familiar. I love you and wish only for your happiness...but if you ask me if I have ever thought of you as a romantic partner, my answer would be no. You are family to me and the thought never crossed my mind..."

Serina felt like her whole world was crashing down on her in that instant. She looks away from Nick to hide the ugly crying she was about to do. It was like a bucket of cold water had been dropped on her head and the fire of hope in her chest had been extinguished.

"That being said," Nick starts again taking a deep breath and tilting her head back to face his, making her look him in the eyes again. That fire in her sparks back to life, if only in a minuscule way. "The thought is not unappealing to me. In fact, now that I look at you, really look at you, as a woman...All I can say is that you look more beautiful to me at this moment than ever before. I can't promise that it will happen or that it will be easy. I have only ever thought of you as my familiar for the past 6 years, after all...But I can promise you that I will do my best to look at you as a woman from now on. To give you just as much of a chance to steal my heart as I have with the others. Is that good enough?"

"Yes!" Serina screams in joy as she launches herself a good 30 feet into the air, nearly hitting the ceiling. She does a couple of backflips and lands...But that doesn't end it. Several other small hops and flips around the kitchen follow as she is completely absorbed with her happiness.

Nick smiles as he watches on and can't help but admit that her bubbly personality is infectious. 

The spark inside Serina was transformed into a bonfire as hope, true and pure hope, of something she never thought possible was realized. She had risked it all when she asked him, and it paid off. Big time. She was so happy, she could cry...Oh wait, she already was crying. Instead of grief and loss, they were tears of joy and hope.

"Oh, I guess I should say this now," Nick starts with a thought. Serina stops her hops and moves up close to Nick, like, really close. Nearly nose to nose. He, gently, pushes her back a couple of inches and smiles at her. "This means you can't sleep and snuggle with me anymore at night. It would be improper for someone who is courting you as a lady, after all."

"Eeeeeehhhhh!?!?!?! Master! No fair! No Fair! You can't take away my snuggle time!" She pouts and hits his chest with soft fists.

Nick laughs at his adorable bunny girl and brushes through her hair. "You should have thought about that earlier." He can't help the smirk that comes to his lips...only for it to be wiped away soon after by her next words.

She thinks for a moment, then grins at him savagely in victory while prowling towards him, swinging her hips the whole time. "That's fine, Master Nick. I will just need to sneak into your bed so that we can have some more intimate snuggles. You, humans, are all prudes. I will show you how a beast loves her mate." She finishes this last sentence by reaching around him and squeezing his ass. 

Nick's face flushes completely as Serina lets him go and jumps away, a teasing smile on her face. "The hunt is only beginning Master...I hope you are prepared..." She fades into the shadows leaving Nick alone in the kitchen with a blush.

He sighs. 'She used to be so cute...where did she pick this up from!?! ...Oh. She found my collection...right...'

Nick sighs again but shakes his head with a small smile in place. 'Still...This is very interesting...'

The smile fades as a serious look overtakes him. 'Time to talk to Dad about Matilda. If I get his permission I can just teleport to her and bring her back immediately. Hopefully, this doesn't turn into another huge conflict. I am so tired of war and death...'