-12 years Later-
"Micheal! Pay Attention!"
Micheal felt the ruler slap the back of his hand and immediately zoned back in to what his mother was saying while yelping at the pain and dropping his own ruler,
"Ow! Ça fait putain de mal!"[1]
"LANGUAGE."
Once more the ruler sped for Micheal who reflexively shot electricity through his body to dodge away from the strike with superhuman speed causing him to move a good 3 meters away in a second and a half. He immediately fell to one knee and panted as spots filled his vision as the blowback from using his mana rattled his body.
"And how many times do I have to tell you to not flood your body with mana! You can't physically handle that yet!"
"I know, I know, It was reflexive…." Micheal glanced up at his mother who looked partially mollified with that answer before she steeled her voice again and pointed the Ruler at him like a sword.
"Get up. We are not done."
Micheal rolled his eyes and stood up still feeling the lingering shocks running through his muscles making them twitch slightly. He gingerly walked back to where he had been standing and picked up the ruler he had been using as a sword.
"Assume a fighting stance."
"Oui Mother…"
"Less snark in your voice please."
Micheal rolled his eyes but assumed a stance where he could easily thrust with the ruler. His mother for her part held her ruler with the point facing the mid point between them. She moved first, using magic to propel her, only for the sound of a singular clap to echo through the yard. Amelia stopped right before her ruler would have impacted Micheals and looked over to see Desmond placing his hands behind him in the small of his back. He bowed slightly at Micheal and then looked at Amelia.
"They will be here in an hour, Madame Amelia. If you wish to freshen up and…."
He glanced at Micheal who had fallen to one knee and was holding himself up purely by his grip on his ruler which he had stabbed into the ground,
"Perhaps you might take your time with it."
"Alright. Thank you Desmond."
"Not a problem at all Madame."
Amelia reflexively sheathed her ruler before realizing what she was doing. She shook her head and walked back to the house muttering to herself in french. Desmond stood to the side to let her pass and looked back at the sound of a small whump as Micheal finally collapsed fully to the soil.
"Monsieur Micheal. Your form seems to have improved."
"Tell that to my aching muscles. I never thought the length of a meter could hurt so much." Micheal said, rolling over onto his back, his chest heaving as he sucked in air. A pair of polished shoes entered his field of vision and a towel was dangled above of him. Sitting upright with difficulty he took the towel and wiped the sweat off his brow and neck looking around the yard at the carnage that his mother had wrought trying to teach him how to fight with a sword.
He handed the towel back to Desmond who looked at the boy with equal parts exasperation and fondness. Eventually he clapped his hands and looked down at Micheal with his butler face
"Time to get up, Monsieur Micheal. You need to get ready after all. You need to make a good impression on the Clock Tower Lord interviewing you."
"Yeah I am aware. Both you and my mother have been harping on about it for a month now. I still don't see how the hel-
"Language."
"...I still don't see how I'm supposed to get into the Clock Tower."
"Which is why you are being interviewed." Desmond explained patiently for what had to be the 20th time they'd had this same discussion. He stood back as Micheal gingerly stood up and handed the boy a bottle of water which he accepted with a grateful nod.
Following the young lord back into the mansion a few minutes later, and once Micheal had gotten into the shower, Desmond had begun setting out the formalwear for the occasion thinking back almost 12 years to when the Lafaires had first come home…..
After getting home with their newborn child, Amelia and Jarod Lafaire had immediately set about trying to understand why Micheal had started sparking electricity. Eventually Amelia reached out to her brother who she asked to sign a self-geass and then explained a little of what had happened in the hospital. Within the same day Shear Arneharte landed in the Paris International Airport, gotten a cab, and arrived at the Lafaires mansion. After signing the self-geass he assessed his newborn nephew,
And realized three things:
One: his magical circuits had already been activated somehow during the birthing process. This meant that he had no way of turning them off. A simple temporary fix honestly. They would artificially cap his mana at a specified level that would move with him as he grew until he demonstrated enough control to then have it uncapped. Although amount of mana going through him unsettled Arnenhearte.
Two: During the examination he detected the presence of Mystic Eyes. He couldn't tell what kind they were but based on the readings they were a high rank. Not the highest but in the upper echelons for sure.
Three: The child did not share any origin or elemental affinity with either of his parents. However he couldn't read what either of them would have been with the equipment he had brought with him and felt as though even if he had the equipment on hand both would be obscured somehow.
When he relayed this to his sister and her husband they didn't believe him and asked to see the results themselves only to find out he was telling the truth. After thanking Arneharte who left the same day, the Lafaires set about trying to figure out what their sons origin and Affinity were. They would attempt this for years without success until finally Amelia began the ritual to implant the Lafaire crest into Micheal on his ninth birthday.
Desmond frowned as he studied three belts and held them against the maroon suit trying to decide which one would fit best.
The Crest implantation had not gone well.
It was as if Micheals body didn't want the crest at all and had to be coaxed into accepting it piece by piece. Eventually after two years the crest had been fully implanted…which led to its own little disaster. With the final part of the crest inside of him his body had overloaded and knocked the poor child into a 6 month coma. He had came out of it a little under half a year ago at which point they finally had their answer to his Origin and it was something neither of them had ever expected from their family:
Micheals Origin was Saint while his Elemental Affinity focused on Lightning, Water, and Holy.
Desmond sighed and finished setting up the outfit, glancing at the clock.
"20 minutes to get here and knowing how Clocktower mages are they'll be late by five minutes to establish themselves as 'superior'...the ingrates." Desmond frowned to himself as he knocked on the door to the adjoining bathroom and heard an affirmative from the boy inside
He shook his head and left Micheals bedroom, closing the door behind him. He clasped his hands behind his back and walked down the hall to the entrance way to be ready for the Clock Tower Representative to arrive.
Thinking ahead Desmond stopped partway down the hall and retrieved a few cleaning runestones from the hallway cupboard.
Knowing Micheal he wouldn't stand for the inevitable slandering of his parents by the Clock Tower representative and that the room they would all be meeting in would need to be cleaned up afterwards. Smiling to himself he stood just off to the side of the main hall and let his mind wander as he waited for the sound of knocking.
~~~~~~~
"Excusez-moi. Pourriez-vous répéter, espèce de tas de crottes d'escargot?"[2]
Micheal was livid. First this guy is late by almost 10 minutes, has the gall to imply that his family wasn't worth arriving on time for, and then he had the sheer nerve to hit on his mother saying she could have "done better than that fleabag."
His mother gasped at what he said and attempted to grab his arm only to pull back as she was lightly shocked by the electricity field suddenly surrounding her son.
"Ah yes. Apologies. I don't speak….that. Maybe try again in English? …little boy."
Micheal stood up feeling his mana respond to his anger as he felt his eyes activate. While he couldn't ever remember the name of his mystic eyes he knew what they did and how to use them. They allowed him to see five seconds into the future of the space around him within a radius of 6 meters. He opened his hand letting lightning arc between his fingers as he watched the man laugh and stand up five seconds before he laughed and stood up.
"Clearly you need someone of stature to put you in your place, you sniveling child."
"Clearly you need someone of stature to put you in your place, you sniveling child."
Micheal flooded his legs with mana and dashed forward, cracking the floor and burning two holes into the carpet as he moved before the man could. He [saw] the man reach up with his cane and tap it into the empty air right as Micheal was about to punch him only for Micheal to crash into an invisible wall. Micheal put one foot down and pushed off to the side of the man course correcting, it seemed, in mid air right as the man began to lift his cane off the floor. Micheal shot out his left leg catching the cane with his shin and snapped it in half. Then spinning in midair pushed off the floor with a hand and brought down his right foot mere centimeters from the nose of the man before cratering the floorboards between them.
The man stepped back, clearly shaken, his face turning beet red in rage as he attempted to hold out his cane only to notice that Micheal was tossing the bottom half of it in his hand. Smirking, Micheal tossed it to the floor in front of the man.
"Go on. Pick it up."
Silence echoed through the hall as the man turned even more red with rage, his mother looking purposely neutral, and Desmond merely looking at the crater in the floorboards with a small smile wondering how to fix it.
"....You will never get into the Clocktower so long as I live. I will make sure you don't and your descendants three times beyond down do not." The man spat before turning around and stalking out of the room being followed by Desmond while Micheal smirked and waved at him,
"Au revoir ~"
[1] "Ow! That fucking hurts!"
[2] "Excuse me. Could you repeat that, you pile of snail shit?"