Heart Of God - Chapter 1 (Familiar of Zero Insert) (Patreon)

"Hello, how are you feeling today?"

Faeran Odhar had heard her approach before she spoke, but didn't turn away from where he sat along a windowsill ledge, staring out down into the capital city of Tristain below the castle.

It was only when she spoke that he deigned to turn his attention to her. He glanced at her out of the corner of his eye, taking in her lovely tan skin, bright blue eyes and chestnut hair, so dark it seemed purple that came down to just her shoulders.

She was a beauty among beauties, that was for sure. And she had the outrageous body to go with those looks, a curvaceous figure that even her white silk dress that cover everything up to her neck couldn't hide.

His 'master'.

"Like I was magically kidnapped and forced to be the slave of a girl I've only seen in passing since I got here." he answered blandly and snorted.

Admittedly, it wasn't really a fault of her own or anything malicious that stopped her from seeing to him in the three days he'd been here, but rather her duties keeping her incredibly busy.

Henrietta winced at his tone, while behind her a blonde woman in armour and wearing a white cloak bristled, eyes narrowing at him.

"I am sorry for that," the princess of Tristain, newly renowned as a saint and soon to be queen apologised, "Believe me, I was not expecting to summon a person, I thought it would be a beast, most likely one aligned with water."

His lips quirked up in amusement, "Lucky you then I suppose." the teen replied, as if privy to a joke only he knew.

Spoiler, he was.

After all, it wasn't too long ago he thought this girl, a to be queen only a year older than himself was fictional.

Henrietta's lips quirked a bit themselves, "Indeed, I'd say so," she nodded, agreeing with his arrogant statement, "If you are anything like the boy my dear friend herself summoned, then I shall indeed be counted lucky."

That would be Saito then.

"The Gandalfr." Faeran nodded. He had a rough idea when he was, but honestly didn't feel the need to hide the fact he knew about the 'legendary void familiar'.

The castle was a busy place, and he'd had basically free reign here the past few days. He'd overheard a few people having whispered conversations about the Japanese boy.

Henrietta's eyes widened, "How do you know that?" she asked, surprised.

He snorted, "I have a working set of ears and quite a few people have been whispering about the guy," he replied, "That, and I can also read and you've left me to myself the past few days, so I borrowed your library to pass some of the time."

Technically, not a lie, since that had all happened. It was surprising how easy it was to pick up the language here. When he appeared, he could already understand them somehow, which was weird since he was sure Saito needed some form of translation spell. And after he'd picked up the written version of the language pretty easily as well after having the alphabet recited to him a few times and written down.

Say what you will, but being summoned by the princess instead of an explosively tempered loli came with a few perks. The only thing that stumped him really was how he was summoned by Henrietta, especially with what was printed on his chest.

He was sure Henrietta was not a Void Mage.

Henrietta blinked, "Ah, I see," she nodded, before her shoulders slumped and she gave him a brittle smile, "So, how are you finding your stay here really, Faeran? I instructed the staff to make sure you were comfortable and provide you what you needed while I was busy."

Hmm, looked like she was being open with him. He turned away from the window to look at her fully and stood up, finding himself taller by a few inches, and noted for the first time the heavy bags under her eyes, "Could be worse," Faeran replied with a shrug, "Pretty boring to be honest, but not bad."

And hey, at least he had his phone with him, and even had his solar charger with him. He'd been on his way to a fishing trip with the lads when he got yoinked up by a weird ass green portal and landed on his ass in another world in front of a fictional princess.

"I see," Henrietta nodded, "I do apologise that I've not been able to take the time to get to know you properly, but things are quite hectic right now."

"It's fine, like I said it could be worse." Faeran waved her off. Honestly, he really wasn't all that bummed out or annoyed. Hell, the most annoying thing about his stay here was having to shit in a bucket.

But the pros vastly outweighed the cons. And three days was well enough time to use some meta knowledge to his advantage. He may have only seen the anime up to season three and the rest he knew from wiki diving, but it was enough.

Admittedly, he was pissed off when the runes on his chest were first branded. Though, not because of the branding, but because of the brand itself.

He wasn't a Japanese school boy. He was a Scottish lad of epic manly proportions. And by that, he meant he had a big willy. He had learned Gaelic, and in the process got interested in Celtic Runes, and from there, their origins in the Norse side of things.

Which appeared to be the very same language as the runes on his chest. And the title branded on his chest?

Lifbrasir. The Heart of God. The most useless of all Void Familiars, which according to the wiki, amounted to little more than a battery who used up their life force to increase the power of mages spells before dying, or being used as a living bomb for storing spells.

Frankly, being the familiar of Louise and being the Gandalfr was a way better option. Fuck being a battery for others man, he wasn't about that noise.

When he calmed down though, after being left to his own devices to recover from the branding of his familiar runes - he totally didn't pass out, that wasn't manly, he was just resting his eyes - he'd noticed something.

He knew exactly how to cast the familiar summoning spell that Henrietta used to bring him here. He knew how to cast the binding of a familiar. He even knew how to cast the water healing spell she had used on him when he was 'resting his eyes' and she thought he had been hurt.

The Lifbrasir was far more amazing than he thought. Able to absorb and store spells within and then cast them using the magic that fuelled those spells in the first place.

It wasn't the instant physical monster and master fighter that the Gandalfr was, but in long term potential, in the hands of an intelligent person like himself?

It perhaps even eclipsed the Gandalfr.

Truly, the only problem was that he didn't have magic energy, or 'willpower' of his own as the mages in Halkeginia called it.

Though that just meant he had to be smart about things. And in the past two days, after getting his bearings, he had not been idle.

"No, it's still no excuse," Henrietta shook her head and broke him from his thoughts, "A familiar is supposed to be special to a mage, their life long partner, the fact that I've left you aside so long is quite shameful."

He almost rolled his eyes, "I'm not so feeble I need a girl to hold my hand you know," he pointed out, before smirking and openly looking her up and down, "No matter how pretty." he flirted with a wink.

"Watch how you speak to her highness!" Agnes snapped at him with a growl.

"Peace Agnes," Henrietta held up her hand to her personal bodyguard and leader of the Musketeer Squad, "He's just teasing, and if I can't indulge with my own familiar, who shall I be able to with?"

"....Fine." Agnes huffed, glaring at him one last time before looking away.

Awfully assuming of her to think he was fine being her familiar, but he'd let it pass. Hot and princess mage or not, she was still from this backwards place, so some allowances had to be made on his part.

Besides, he was actually quite grateful to her. He was quite hyped to be the Lifbrasir. So many avenues had been opened up thanks to her, And her subjects were only too happy to indulge a familiar of the queen, especially her minister when he visited his office yesterday, Mazarin was loyal to a fault to Henrietta's family from what he vaguely remembered, and he quite quickly saw the benefits when Faeran revealed just what he was to the old man yesterday.

It helped that unlike the other stodgy noble fuckers around the place, he was pretty open minded.

Henrietta turned her attention back to him and flashed him another brittle smile, "Though, as much as I'd like to take the time to get to know you better Faeran, I'm afraid I just don't have the time, and I've come to see you business, rather than pleasure." she said.

"Shame that," he grinned, but shrugged easily enough, "So you're wracking your head trying to figure out what Void familiar I am, right?" he asked, getting right to the point. Really, it was the only thing business wise she would have to discuss with him right now.

She stared at him in surprise before giggling lightly, a beautiful sound, "My, you're quite the sharp one aren't you?" she mused.

"It's kind of obvious." Faeran replied.

"I suppose it is if you know of Saito," Henrietta nodded, "To be honest Faeran, I'm not sure what to think. I can still cast my normal magic easily without trouble, so I doubt I am one of the legendary Void Mages at all, yet it doesn't explain how I summoned you."

Yeah, Faeran agreed with her. As far as he was aware, the big tittied Elf was supposed to summon the Lifbrasir, who was Saito as well if he remembered the wiki right. How that worked, he didn't know, but he was sure this shouldn't have happened.

Not that he was complaining.

"We are in correspondence with the magical academy and they are looking into your runes to try and translate them," she continued, "But any hints at all you can give us will be helpful, have you found yourself in possession of any strange new abilities?"

Faeran laughed, "You could have just asked me about it first you know?" he grinned, reaching up to run a hand through his short spiky dark brown and blonde tipped hair, "I can read the runes you know."

Henrietta's eyes widened, "You can!?" she asked, shocked.

"Sure, it reads the exact same as Norse Runes from where I come from," he shrugged, "I'm Lifbrasir, the Heart of God, and as far as abilities go, well..."

Faeran trailed off for a moment before reaching over to the stone wall. Without uttering a single word, energy trailed from his chest down to his arm and into the wall and then he pulled. The wall sunk inwards a bit as he drew stone from the wall almost like a living liquid that quickly changed shape and solidified into a sword.

"Earth Magic?!" Henrietta gasped in awe, mouth dropping open in shock, and Agnes was no better, staring gobsmacked at him.

"Kind of," Faeran nodded giving the sword a light swing through the air and admiring the sound of the air parting around it with a faint whistle, "My power is the ability to absorb spells and store them within myself to be released later." to punctuate his point, he tightened his grip on the swords grip and a faint green light spread out from his hand.

A moment later, the sword lost its form and reverted to that of the missing rocky surface of the wall in his hand as he absorbed the magical energy and spell once again.

He held it up for Henrietta to look at, "Like I said, lucky you huh, especially with war on the horizon for you." he grinned again.

Given enough time to stock up and some assistance like Mazarin had given him yesterday, the one whom he'd gotten that nifty little sword creation spell from, he could build up and unleash an army of spells.

He could become a one man magical army.

"...Lucky me indeed." Henrietta nodded in a daze.

Hmm, he quite liked that look on her face. It was a testament to how awesome he was.