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“Must I summon another servant? Aren’t Carmilla and Vlad enough?” Lestat moaned upon hearing Da Vinci’s request. “I don’t even go into the Lostbelts all that often.”
“Yes, well, you still only have two servants. I know you mainly work at command with us, but you will have to go in to fight eventually. It’s good to have multiple servants, just in case. I mean, look at Iaian. She has eight and she’s doing fine.” Da Vinci beamed as she spoke. She was always like this, though it feels like she’s gotten snarkier ever since she transferred to her new body.
“Iaian has so many servants because she’s depressed and uses them to help fill the Dr. Roman shaped hole in her heart, though I guess she also actually goes into the Lostbelts and fights with them there…” Lestat glanced over to the summoning room. Her two servants were elsewhere. They didn’t know of the conversation happening, and she wouldn’t know how they’d react to another servant joining them. Lestat sighed, ultimately giving in to Da Vinci’s nagging. “Fine, go call Mash over… If the resulting servant ends up getting into fights, I don’t want to hear anything.”
“I knew you’d come around eventually! All righty, I’ll go get Mash.” Da Vinci walked off looking proud of herself.
Lestat stood in the hallway, fiddling with her hat and the tassels attached to it. She waited there for a few minutes until Da Vinci returned, Mash in tow.
“Alright! We can begin preparations for the summoning! I can’t wait to see who we get!” Da Vinci opened the door, letting the other two inside.
“I wonder who senpai will get. Whoever it is, they’ll have to be strong, just like your other servants. Right, senpai?” Mash looked to Lestat, who seemed nervous about the summoning.
“Huh? What? Oh, uh… Yeah, yeah, I’m sure they’ll be strong… They’ll have to be to be my servant.” Lestat put up a smile, feigning her confidence. She was told both by tests and by her own servants that she was practically made to be a master, but she herself could never believe it. Perhaps her doubt in her ability was why she refused to summon more than her two current servants? She shook the idea away. “Well, shouldn’t we start the summoning? I’m sure you two have other things to do…”
“No, we really have nothing else to do. We’re still targeting the next Lostbelt, so a lot of us have downtime.” Mash spoke as she summoned her shield, placing it down on summoning circle.
“Is that so… Well, I’ll begin summoning now I suppose. All the more time to bond with whoever gets dragged out of the Throne of Heroes” Lestat walked towards the shield, staring at it. “Well… let’s go, then.” Lestat took a breath and began to channel her magical energy into the summoning circle.
“To those who would listen, heed my summons. I know humility and despair. I have seen death and war. I am trusting that you allow me to command and guide you, for I am naught but a simple human. I believe deeply in my creed and wish to create a bond with you. Through blood and tears, I beg of you. Be summoned now and become my protector.”
Lestat recited her chant, gazing towards the shield. After a moment, the room started to light up, the space above the shield shining a bright blue. Lestat walked back, wanting to make room for whoever would be summoned. A pillar of blue light shot up from the middle of the circle, a figure manifesting within it. The light died down as fast as it had come, leaving a man standing in the center of the room. He looked around for a moment, quickly finding the one who would be his master. He approached Lestat.
“Servant, Rider… My true name is Constantine XI. The final emperor of the great and holy Rome, who gave it his everything. I will do all that I can to make what your wishes come true.” The newly summoned servant bowed to Lestat. Clearly, he was the noble type, unlike her other two servants.
“Um… Hello. I am Lestat, your master. I suppose this is the beginning of our bond?” Lestat put her hand out to Constantine. “And you don’t have to bow, it’s weird…” Lestat pulled her hat down over her face with her other hand, blushing from embarrassment. She wasn’t used to servants doing this to her, at all.
Constantine raised himself back up, taking her hand in his and shaking it. “I suppose it is. I look forward to working with you, master.”
“Ah, Constantine XI! The final emperor of the Byzantine Empire who fell along with it! I’m sure you’ll add a wonderful balance to Lestat’s servants, all knows she needs it…” Da Vinci spoke up, mumbling the final portion of her speech.
“What was that, Da Vinci?”
“Oh, nothing! But anyways, I’m sure Lestat can tell you all you need to know, but you’ll be working with Carmilla and Vlad III, so play nice~” Da Vinci opened the door to leave, holding it open so that the rest could come out.
Mash picked up her shied, dematerializing it. “I’m glad your summoning worked, senpai. It was nice meeting you, Mr. Constantine!” Mash smiled at him, walking back towards the doorway.
Lestat let go of her hat, grabbing the hand that held the other and turning around, pulling it out of his grip. “Come on, I’ll lead you somewhere else.” She dragged him out of the room, seeming to be in a hurry to be somewhere.
“W-where are we going?” Constantine was surprised by her sudden movement, following her without much difficulty. Her grip was strong though, which surprised him.
“We’re going… somewhere. Without people. Probably my room. I don’t know where my other two servants are, and I don’t feel like doing introductions right now. You heard Da Vinci though, they’re Carmilla and Vlad III. Vlad was actually alive around the same time you were, fought against the Ottomans just like you did, though he didn’t lose his entire claim of land to them like you had. It would have been soon after you died, I think.” Lestat rambled. She had no idea where they were. She had just started walking somewhere randomly, not paying attention to where she turned or didn’t turn. “Where are we, anyways… This place can be a maze sometimes, can’t it…”
“You make it sound like I’m nothing in comparison to him…” Constantine looked a bit dejected at Lestat’s words. “I can help you look. I don’t know the layout of this place, but I’m sure it can’t be that difficult to get around and find your room.”
Lestat let go of Constantine’s hand, allowing him to walk free. “Alright then, lets try to reorient ourselves… The rooms around here all seem like labs, so… Residency should be over there?” Lestat pointed down the hall. “Come on.”
The pair started walking down the hallway together, Lestat messing with her hat as she walked.
“So… why do you wear that hat?” Constantine gazed at the hat as he walked, only glancing away to make sure he wasn’t about to run into anything every few seconds.
“Huh? Why do I wear it? Well, uh… because… I’m a mage, my magic circuits and heart are stored in this hat! If I ever take it off, I won’t be able to use my magic! Yes, that is why I wear this hat!” A slight accent that hadn’t been there before appeared in Lestat’s voice as she spoke, as if she had been holding it back but accidentally let it slip as she got excited.
“Ah, I see. You wouldn’t be able to be my master if you didn’t have that hat on, then?”
“Yes, exactly!”
“I see, I see.”
Lestat’s excuse for why she wore the hat was bullshit. Constantine knew this much but choose not to comment on it.
Eventually, they found their way back to the residential ward. They’d passed by multiple servants on the way there, but Lestat didn’t allow for Constantine to stay and speak to them, no matter how much he wanted to. She wished to first increase their bond before letting him go off on his own. It’s what he did with her servants before him, it’s what she’ll do with any servants after him.
Lestat located her room and opened the door, keeping it open for Constantine. “Come in, make yourself comfortable wherever you want…”
The room was decorated with all manner of objects, from merchandise to mundanities. Her bed was covered in various plushies, a giant whale being the base which the others surrounded and sat on top of. She had a couple of shelves, all filled with a mix of books, figures, and other small knickknacks she had. The wall had several posters taped up to them, which was quite a contrast next to the crosses she also had on the wall next to them. Her bed was unkempt, and a few of the plushies laid on the floor. For what the room was, she certainly made it her own.
“Quite the decoration you have in here…” Constantine looked around the room. His eyes locked onto the crosses before looking back to Lestat. “Are you of the same faith?”
“Huh? Oh, yes. I’m Catholic… It was the main religion back home, so I ended up just growing up in it. Mama and papa weren’t necessarily ‘good’ Catholics though, so neither were me or my siblings. It’s fine though. I don’t really pay mind to it as a religion at this point, honestly. The aesthetics of it are nice, the faith is simply a bonus, I suppose…” Lestat looked at Constantine as she sat herself down on her bed. “Pull up a chair or something, feel free to sit down.”
Constantine grabbed the chair from the desk and pulled it over next to the bed, sitting down in it. “I see then… Where are you from? I’d like to get to know my master better since we’ll be working together from now on.”
“God I’m not used to this with the other two… you’re the first servant to actually ask so much about me. Where I’m from doesn’t matter, it’s a place you weren’t alive to even see the initial Spanish discovery of.” Lestat pulled her hat down and looked away. “What I can tell you though is that I specialize in linguistics. A lot of my time here has been me learning the languages each of the servants speak. That being said, could you teach me your empire’s language? To my understanding, it was a divergent form of Greek as well as Latin, yes? I know Latin and standard Greek, so it shouldn’t be too hard to learn your language.” Lestat spoke quickly and excitedly, her accent coming out once more. Being able to hear it more, she seemed to skip over some letters and words entirely while speaking, but it was still understandable.
“Ah… I am at the least familiar with the state of the world, at least somewhat. But anyways, yes, that was what we spoke. Since you already know each language on its own, I guess it shouldn’t be difficult to teach you the dialect of the empire. Would you like to learn now, or…?” Constantine leaned forward in his chair.
“Mmmmh… Maybe. I’d like to know you before I start to learn about your language. First off, do you prefer cats or dogs?”
“W-what?”
“Answer the question. Cats or dogs?”
“Uh… dogs.”
“I see, I much prefer cats, I have one myself here. She’s somewhere around here, one moment…” Lestat started to rummage through the pile of plushies on her bed, throwing them around the room. “Here she is!” She eventually picked up a black mass and held it out towards Constantine. It stared at him with large blue eyes and meowed at him. “Her name is Knight, though she doesn’t really act like one… She’s much more of a spoilt princess than she is a knight.” Lestat smiled as she spoke about her cat, pulling it towards her and hugging it. Knight batted her paws at Lestat to let her go, annoyed that she had been awoken. Lestat placed her down on the bed next to her.
“You’re allowed to have pets here?”
“Probably not… but I haven’t been told to get rid of her yet. Honestly, I don’t even know how she got here, she just kinda appeared one day and I claimed her. She hasn’t caused us any problems, so I’m sure it’s fine to let her stay.”
The pair continued to speak like this for the rest of the night. Lestat ended up becoming much more comfortable with Constantine’s presence and learnt much about him, both as a servant and as a person. She knew that she’d eventually have to give him a proper meeting with Carmilla and Vlad, but she felt like putting that off for the time being. Something inside her told her that introducing them all outside of a controlled environment would cause trouble. She chose to agree.
Eventually, their conversation had to come to an end, a wave of tiredness washing over Lestat.
“I should get to bed…” Lestat yawned. “It was nice meeting and speaking to you, Constantine. Go do… whatever servants do at night… I’m going to sleep.” Lestat waved off Lestat, pulling a blanket over herself and lying back into the mountain of plushies.
Constantine got up out of his chair and placed it back at the desk. He looked back at Lestat as he walked to the door. In the time it had taken to put the chair back and almost leave the room, she had seemed to completely fall asleep. The large hat she had been wearing was discarded and placed at the very top of the plushie pile. Constantine couldn’t help but chuckle at this as he turned to leave the room, turning off the lights on his way out.