Returning

Dear, he'd been away for far too long. What was supposed to be a calm stroll through the Pit turned into a spell gone wrong followed by rabid fire pokemon chasing him through the land and -- well, Cecil had been though his fair share of action for a while. He'd missed the guild elections too, drat.. Well, might as well see who this new leader was...

Calmly and politely, he gave the previously unused Academy Leader's door a few knocks.

The door opened by a maidservant, welcoming him in. She was sitting at her desk after the meeting with the defense team, dubbing them responsible for the safety of the shield around the guild.

She yawned as she watched the door open. Who was it this time?

A maidservant, hm? He wondered when the Academy ever had maidservants... though there were many things strange about all these guilds. Regardless, he took off his hat out of politeness as he entered, reaching into his pocket and putting on his trademark monocle, blinking a few times as he saw the guild leader in full detail. ...he stood there in shock for a few minutes.

"A-ah, uh.. A child???"

"Aha! Welcome to the Academy Office, desu yo~! <3"

Linnea gave her greetings, standing up quickly. Her small hands enthusiastically waved up and down, excited to introduce the office in such a manner. It was growing to be quite boring as she continued to stay in the office...there had to be other things to do, wouldn't there?

"And I'm..."

She did a small crouch, powering up her right hand and squinting close her eyes...then jumped up raising her little hand.

"Linnea! Academy Guild Leader~! Yaye!"

Her smile was large and bright as she winked, Lin extended a right hand with a victory V.

"Nice to meet you! Cha-pow! Hehe~! <3"

He was still a bit dumbfounded. Hesitantly, he cleared his throat and tried to remain calm.

"So, you won the elections then..."

He looked around the office. It was certainly an impressive place to do business for the Guild. Though.. he still ondered what credentials the girl had.

"Um! Well, Mistress Guild Leader.. What do you plan to do from here?"

"Eh?"

Linnea actually took a good look at the person standing in the doorway. The man in it, he was someone she had never seen before. With hazel eyes, she blinked at him for a moment...who was he? She didn't know him. Looking over to Aria she had no expression. That meant Aria didn't know him neither!

"What do I plan on doing?!"

Quietly, she sat back down in the chair, and pouted a little...who was this person just randomly coming in and...she muttered a little, a stubborn and pouty expression

"Buildin a zoo.."

"A... zoo..."

He looked grimly at her, before noticing that he was also getting glares from both Linnea and the maidservant. He gathered he wasn't making nearly the best impression to his new guild leader - like her or not.

"Um! Well, I did forget to introduce myself! Cecil Nightwing, member of the Academy and offshot member of the Citadel-Nation, presenting before you."

He gave a slight bow to her, and then coiled right back up, walking closer to the desk.

"I do have a few.. recommendations for the guild though."

"Recommendations...?"

The girl at the desk looked to him curiously. This man was interesting. She sat up properly this time.

"What kinda recommendations?"

"Well~"

He bent back his hands and smiled at her, then adjusting his monocle.

"We need to establish a more effective sparring facility, get a potions lab established, make a spell research bureau, establish an armory and research of magical weapons, and..."

He was rushing.

"Ah, pardon me, I got ahead of myself..."

"Well...Mister Nightman..dats all in the process already!"

Linnea giggled and Aria in the corner gave a soft laugh. Lin was glad; Aria was getting used to who the small, brash girl was. And though she was still calling her "Miss Linnea", it was a start. And more and more, the rest of the maidservants were relaxing more and taking it less of an errorless job.

"How stiff! You guys should play more! When the zoo gets up and running, everyone gets to go there! Even you girls too!" Linnea had said one day in quite the excitement. One by one, she made they think of an animal that they'd love to pet or see, wrote them down, and exclaimed, "When the zoo is built, those animals will be here, just for you guys! Then you'll play and be happy!". The kindness of their guild leader made them reconsider their doubts.

Linnea smiled at Cecil, cheerful and bright.

"You must be like everyone else! They think just because I'm silly, I don't get work done but...I can when I set my mind to it! Yep!"

"I-is.. that so.."

He was of course very surprised by this. Perhaps that's how she was elected in the first place... But it was still unnerving...

"Well, how do you plan to get all those things.. done?"

Staring at him with angelic eyes and small smile ( ":3"), Linnea would look at him for a moment...then without hesitation she called out,

"Cakey! Aria, I'm hungree, can I has cakey?"

The maidservant by the door nodded, a warm expression. She briskly proceed through the door behind her to get her cake. Linnea grinned happily and collapsed backwards into the chair, singing a nonexistent song and ignoring Cecil's question entirely.

"B-b-but, you must have some plan to get these all taken care of...!"

He was desperate now. He never liked being ignored; though if it was by a superior such as a guild leader then he could take it. He even noticed her single star-rank, and was almost livid.. even he, a 6th, was more competent in magic than her.

"I implore you, what makes you a good guild leader?!"

"Thankies, Aria!"

The girl said as a plate of fresh pound cake was placed in front of the girl. Aria gave a smile and nod.

"Eat up before it gets cold."

Lin gave her a small hug which Aria chuckled softly at. What a doll...Picking up her fork, she was right about the dig in, when...Linnea looked at Cecil with large and curious eyes. Then a gigantic smile.

"Would you like some cakey, Mister Nightman? :'D"

His stomach answered for him before he even had a chance to decline. Cecil hadn't actually eaten since he got back.. and was now feeling his own hunger quite powerfully.

"I.. s-suppose.."

He sat on the chair before the desk begrudgingly, looking at the piece of cake. How delicious it looked...

There were two chairs on the other side of the desk, one which was occupied by Cecil and the other open. With the look of where Cecil was, Linnea gave a stubborn and pouting face, then picked up the whole plate of pound cake. With little squishy sounds of her walking (Think baby Lambo when he walks), she sat herself down on the other unoccupied chair. The fork was poked into the cake and scooped to a sufficient amount of the delicious sweetness.

Then Linnea looked to Cecil with a playful grin. She lifted the fork to his mouth.

"Say 'ah!' Mister Nightman...! :'D"

And people wondered what went on in the Academy Guild offices; A young blonde girl with pound cake feeding a grown man next to her. What was becoming of the world.

His eyes bulged as he say the.. guildmaster, begin to feed him like a stting infant..

"W-W-W-WAIT!!"

He backed away far too fast, landing flat on his rear end as he pushed himself back away from Linnea. His face was a twisted mess of what seemed to be sheer horror.

"I'd like to eat it myself, please!"

Since he had landed upon the floor, Linnea got closer by kneeling upon his chair. She looked down at him from the chair a small glare and a stubborn pout. Linnea bent over to shove the fork at his lips, her blonde hair framing her face.

"Nope! You gotta eat like this or you're not getting any!"

She said, holding her position there. Aria in the corner laughed quietly.

His stomach gave an earth-shaking growl once more (like a starving african child) and he cringed at the though of what he was about to do.

"F-fine! T_T"

Reluctantly, he took the piece of cake from the fork, and began chewing.. finally scarfing it down in 2 seconds flat.

Her lips curled into a small surprised express at how quickly he had eaten it. Small hands set down the plate of cake and she let go of the chair as her support to bend down and touch his stomach.

"What's wrong you haven't eaten much--"

At that moment, the whole chair tilted over so much she crashed right into him. The fork that was in her hand had aimed to Cecil's eye in her collision............. The small girl in the dark, sapphire blue robes gave a groan.

"Arghh...."

"Miss Linnea!"

Aria hurried as fast as her prim and proper shoes could take her, lifting her dress to do so.

"Miss Linnea, are you alright?!"

"Agh!"

On instinct, Cecil's hand flew towards his face, a jolt of purple electricity sending the fork flying and getting stuck in the ceiling. After that, he tried to catch her, his hands grabbing her sides and setting her upright - she was really quite light. As he stood her back up, he propped himself up as well, sitting on the floor.

"I think we're alright..."

Her head was a little dizzy...she didn't like suddenly falling into random people...sometimes it's fun but not this time..

"Aria, I'm okay.."

She said groggily and held onto the chair. Then she realized...

"Hey! My fork! It's gone!"

Indeed her hand was empty and she waved it around as if it would reappear if she did. Aria had already picked up the ricocheted fork, bringing it back to them.

"Miss Linnea you had the fork pointed at his eye when you fell..."

"A-Ah! I did?! I did not!"

Linnea said, feeling guilty. She panicked a moment, her lip trembling as if she were to cry.

"I.."

"But don't worry..it looks like the gentleman here had deflected it."

"De...flect..?"

Looking to the man, she blinked twice.

"You...can deflects?"

"Ah.."

He sat upright, before getting up to stand again.

"I use a darkened form of lightning.. all it took was a jolt to get the fork away from my eye."

He noticed she was on the verge of crying, and immediately flushed.

"I-I'm fine now, so.. no need to get upset..."

"Oh!"

Linnea suddenly gotten close, pulling on his sleeve eagerly. Her eyes shone brightly and she grinned.

"You cans use magics like me, right?"

"Well I'm in the same guild as you, of course."

He said, moving his hands in front of him as an arc of black-purple lightning formed between them (much like the avatar).

"We all have our talents, as you can gather. What's yours?"