"Hey, Zero Louise is going to duel Wild Baye!"
The news spread across the entire academy in the blink of an eye. Since it was breakfast time, naturally the busiest time of day, it was only natural for such news to travel fast. In fact, by the time Louise and Baye arrived at the dueling grounds, the area was already packed several layers deep with spectators.
"There really are a lot of people."
Looking at the sea of people surrounding them, Louise was rather surprised. Just then, the curvaceous woman from before approached her.
"Of course. Everyone is curious about your familiar. After all, a familiar summoned by magic actually turned out to be human. That's something no one has ever seen before. Honestly, if we hadn't witnessed it ourselves yesterday, we wouldn't have believed it either."
"Hmph! Just a bunch of foolish idiots."
Hearing the woman's words, Louise scowled. Everything had happened so suddenly that she had not given it much thought. But now that she thought about it, it was true. Although Baye's words had sounded furious, if she had not been personally involved, then hearing that someone had summoned a human familiar during a familiar-summoning class would probably have made her think, What kind of joke is this?
"But will that child really be all right?"
"I never thought you'd be concerned about my familiar."
Louise gave the curvaceous woman a surprised look. Their relationship in class could hardly be called good. The Vallière family and this woman's family had practically been locked in a generations-long feud. Though the two of them had not gone that far, they had always disliked each other.
"Of course I'm concerned. You don't know what Baye summoned..."
"Come forth, my familiar, Baf!"
Before the woman could finish, Baye shouted. Flames suddenly