Heart Of God - Chapter 2.1 (Familiar of Zero Insert) (Patreon)

'While the effects of 'Haste' to increase the speed of the body is incredible, it is not a spell used much for combat. Not only is the incantation for the spell too long to be considered practical, the amount of willpower needed for the spell to take effect for any decent period of time will leave most mages unable to contribute to a battle with their own spells.'

Faeran placed the book he was reading down on the table he was sitting at and cupped his chin in thought, 'This or something along these lines is probably what was included in the Gandalfr package to increase their agility and reflexes.' he mused.

He'd asked Mazarin yesterday when he visited his office about spells that enhanced the physical ability and learned that they did indeed exist. Two specifically stood out to him. Haste, that increased the speed and reflexive ability of the caster, which Mazarin said was a favoured spell of Karin the Heavy Wind, and Reinforcement that increased the casters overall physical strength and durability.

He wondered why nobody he saw used them. And thankfully, books on the spells in the royal library weren't hard to find and gave him the answers. For one, their incantations were stupidly long, like multiple paragraphs in length. It would take a mage at least a minute to cast one unless they could cut down on the incantation, which he'd learned wasn't really feasible and only the best of the best could even hope to do that, like Louise's mother. And beyond her Mazarin hadn't been able to label a single other, and she herself could only do it with the Haste spell.

The second issue was the sheer amount of willpower needed to keep give the spell any time worth of use. Spells here, weren't like feeding extra energy to make a bigger effect, but rather, a set amount upon casting.

And third was perhaps one of the biggest issues. From what he read, it seemed the enhancement spells scaled in the amount enhanced in correspondence to the targets own physical ability. So, for most mages that were nobles that rarely exercised and lived rather sedentary life styles, even those in the military, it meant that the boosts they got, wouldn't amount to much because of their own lacking physical ability.

"That checks out." Faeran snorted, leaning back into the chair and crossing his arms behind his head to stare up at the ceiling.

The vast majority of mages he'd seen were either scrawny and thin, or fat and out of shape. And being in the royal castle, he saw quite a lot of mages. Hell, there were multiple dozens working in the castle at all times, and there were a lot of noble visitors hanging around because of the shit going on with Albion.

But despite all the mages he saw, very few could be considered in shape, or even muscular.

Really, it was no wonder Saito could stomp a mudhole in dozens of mages at once without problem as the Gandalfr. He was in decent shape from what he remembered, and able to freely use the physical boosts thanks to his Gandalfr runes on the fly, he must have seemed like an utter monster to most mages.

Fucking Wardes was one of the best fighters around apparently, and Saito with little to zero fighting experience beat his pedo ass like he owed him money while being his red headed step child.

Faeran snorted again, shaking his head. God, the people here seemed to lack common sense. But then, they were practically in the seventeen hundreds mentally right? If even that advanced.

He'd barely scratched the surface of magic here, but already found so many ways to abuse his position as the Lifbrasir.
He was especially fond of the healing water spells. His body automatically absorbed the mana and shape of a spell if it touched him at all, but could only disperse the effects of the spell if he used his hands to physically touch the spell. Which meant if he got hit in the back with say a fire ball spell, he'd still get burned in the process.

But the likes of healing spells? Well, since they didn't have any adverse effects on his body when used at any point, since they were you know healing spells, it meant he could head to the royal infirmary where multiple water mages were on staff and have them stock him up on multiple healing spells at once.

"There you are Lord Faeran!" a familiar voice broke him from his thoughts, "I've been looking all over for you!"

Faeran tilted his head back to look behind him at the entrance of the library, finding old man Mazarin standing in the library, huffing and puffing deeply, "It's not good for a guy your age to get all out of breath like that Mazarin." he pointed out.

He didn't bother commenting on the 'lord' title. For one, he quite liked it. And two, well, since he was the familiar of Henrietta, and one able to 'use' magic, he was well qualified to be a noble lord apparently.

What crazy sad qualifications to be a noble, but hey, it worked in his favour so he wasn't going to complain.

"Perhaps, but I would not be in this state if it wasn't so hard to find you," the cardinal pointed out wiping sweat from his brow, "You are too much of a free spirit I say, it should not be hard to find one person in this castle, especially one as important as you."

"I've been in here the last half hour." Faeran snorted.

"Yes," Mazarin nodded, "And before that, the infirmary, before that your bedroom and before that the armoury, and that is just within the last hour and a half."

He almost laughed out loud. It seemed like he had led the old man on a merry goose chase without even meaning to, nice.

"Sorry about that, I was checking out some books on the physical enhancement spells you were telling me about yesterday," Faeran instead apologised. Mazarin had been nothing but kind and helpful to him since he got here after all, even if it was only because of being Henrietta's familiar, but one good turn deserved another and all that, "So what's up? Looks like you have something important you want to speak to me about." the teen asked.

Mazarin sighed, "It's fine, you are quite the studious sort and I cannot blame you for seeking to understand your position more and sate your need for knowledge," the old man accepted the apology easily, "It is along those lines why I have sought you out though."

"Oh?" Faeran raised an eyebrow in interest, sitting up properly in the chair and turning to face the older man dressed in brown robes.

"As you know, tomorrow is the coronation where her majesty princess Henrietta will ascend to her position as the queen of all of Tristain." Mazarin began.

"Yeah?" Faeran nodded. It was kind of hard not to know, it was all the people in the castle were talking about. That and how Henrietta was a saint that even the legendary 'phoenix' appeared to defend and defeat the army of Albion for.

All a bunch of bullshit that was merely used to hide the fact that Louise and Saito slapped their fantasy English asses like naughty children.

"I would like you to guard the princess tomorrow," Mazarin revealed, "You have not had much chance to talk or get to know each other I understand, but her highness is stressed and nervous, I believe having you there as her precious familiar to support her will ease her a bit and make things easier for her."

...That was all? "Sure, I've got no problem with it." Faeran shrugged. He wasn't exactly some trained guard or anything, but unlike normal mages, any spell he absorbed, he could unleash instantly, making it so he could react much faster than any other one if he caught something going on.

And he did actually want to get to know Henrietta. She was always his favourite from the series when he watched it, an absolute sweetheart. And on top of that, a complete smoke show of a girl, she was smoking fucking hot.

Besides, he was so fucking bored being cooped up in this castle all day long. And during the coronation, there was going to be a big ass parade and festival and shit from what he remembered.

"Splendid!" Mazarin smiled brightly at him, "Though, I already expected you would say yes, which is why I was really looking for you."

Faeran's eyebrow rose again, "..Why?" he asked, confused.

"Well, if you're going to be guarding the princess tomorrow, it behooves me to make sure you are well equipped for the job does it not?" Mazarin pointed out, "I have many earth based mages in the training courtyard, all capable of creating golems. Taking in their spells, should allow you to deploy a small army of your own if needed."

Ohh!

Faeran's eyes went wide and a massive grin split across his face, "Alright then, what are we waiting for!" he clapped his hands and quickly made his way across to the older man.

He'd absorbed the spell from Mazarin before to create golems. But, only enough to create five of them, because at the time he was absorbing quite a few other spells and was more interested in Earth Magic Alchemy. Still, Mazarin was good enough to turn regular stone into iron armoured golems, a tier or two above Guiche's brass golems. Being able to deploy five of those at any time was awesome, and now he could get even more? Sign him the fuck up.

"You." Mazarin pointed out drily.

Oh, right.

Laughing sheepishly, Faeran let the older man lead him out of the library and towards the training courtyard where the knights sworn to Henrietta and her family trained.

"By the way." Faeran spoke up as they walked through the hallways lit by candle light, it was already getting late.

"Yes dear boy?" Mazarin asked.

"Do you know anybody that can cast those enhancement spells?" he asked, looking to the old man, "Since I can use spells I absorb instantly and without incantations, they're much more useful to me."

"Hmm, I see, that is a good point," Mazarin nodded, before smiling at him, "Well, while they are quite complicated spells, I did learn them in my youth out of curiosity, I will gladly cast them for you."

"Perfect," Faeran rubbed his hands together happily. It wasn't the Gandalfr runes, but it would do for now, "Though seriously old man, Why the hell does Henrietta need me with you around? You're a Square Mage and can cast practically every spell I've asked about, you're like Dumbledore or something." and it wasn't an exaggeration. Levitation, telekinesis, earth spells, water spells, fire spells, wind spells, alchemy, golem creation and now even the enhancement spells.

Mazarin laughed, "It sounds impressive if you list them out, but keep in mind Lord Faeran, I am an old man, and while I can indeed cast these spells, I have never been a trained warrior, more scholar than fighter," he replied, "It's not as impressive as it sounds at my age, I am much inferior to old Osmond at the magic academy after all."

Faeran nodded, seeing where he was coming from. Knowing how to do something was much different in comparison to doing it in a stressful situation, like a fight for instance. But; "Don't sell yourself so short, the fact you can do all this at all is worth being proud of and bragging about," he rebuked him, then cocked his head as a thought occurred to him, "Wait, how old are you anyway?"

Mazarin chuckled, "I celebrated my eighty seventh birthday just two months ago."

Faeran choked on his spit.

                                                                                    ___________

Henrietta sighed as she sat down on her bed. All the lights were out except for one candle that burned beside her bed and lit the room up in a faint orange red glow.

She was tired. Oh so tired. "I don't want to be queen." she whispered to herself.

It was bad enough being just a princess. She had very little time to herself and could rarely even see her best and only friend. Now, being queen, it was going to be ten times as stressful and take up easily twice as much of her time, if not more.

She was so exhausted she could barely keep her eyes open. Keeping her eyes open physically hurt them at this point, and she had a ringing headache that just wouldn't go away.

But she dreaded tomorrow. Tomorrow, she would be crowned queen and the full responsibility of her entire kingdom would be on her shoulders.

Ah, how she envied Louise. Free to do as she pleased and have fun at the Tristain Magic Academy. Though, even that would probably come to an end soon.

'It was you wasn't it Louise, who defeated that army, you and Saito.' she was sure of it. Her friend was the legendary void mage. One of at least two they knew of in the entire world.

Already those few in the know were pushing to use her power in the upcoming war. She was trying so hard to make sure it didn't come to war, but they were pushing to invade Albion.

It hurt just to think about. Going to war with the beloved nation of her now deceased lover.

"...Wales..." Henrietta's lips trembled just saying his name. Her heart ached so terribly to know he was gone, it made her just want to put a dagger through her heart to go join him in the after life and leave all this stress behind.

But she couldn't. She no longer had love, but she still had her people that needed her.

It could be worse she told herself. Right now she could be wedded and bedded to the Germanian King, one of many women to warm his bed.

But, the pit in her stomach wouldn't go away. She was sad, sad enough that she'd cried out all the tears in her eyes.

And oh so lonely. She wished Louise was here. Her and Saito, though they bickered constantly, she could not help but envy the warmth of their companionship and wish she had something like that, a constant companion always by her side, there to protect her, there to make her happy, there to even bicker with, like Louise and Saito.

How she wished she had something like th-

"..Ah, that's right." Henrietta cupped her cheek. How could she have forgotten? She had her own familiar now, a Void Familiar even just like Saito.

Though she'd only met him twice, and only engaged in brief conversation with him once before duty got in the way again.

The urge to go see him and learn about him rose up within her suddenly and the princess and soon queen abruptly stood up from her bed.

It was late, and she was oh so tired. But, she needed someone to take away this pit from her stomach, and he was the only one she had.

Steeling herself, Henrietta pulled on her fluffy robe over her nightgown and made her way over to the door of her bedroom and opened it.

"Your majesty?" Agnes who was standing guard at her door, taking the first shift of the nightly watch immediately bowed.

"Ah, Agnes," Henrietta smiled at the blonde woman, "Would you be a dear and lead me to my familiars bedroom please?"

Agnes frowned at her request and opened her mouth to argue, "Please." Henrietta added once more, punctuating her request.

Agnes was not happy about the casual way Faeran had spoken to her the other day, but Henrietta did not mind, in fact, she liked it that he would be so casual with her instead of stiff and formal.

"Very well, please follow me your highness." the blonde knight dipped her head respectfully and bid her to follow.