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"What kind of name is sheen-jee anyway? And ee-karee? Is that the town you come from?"

"Um, no. It's my mother's family name. My father took her name when they married. His name is... a little bit more difficult to say. Ro-ku-bung-gi. My family name just means 'Anchor'... and my name is, um, a very common one. It has many meanings, I never really got to know what my parents intended."

'His father took his mother's name. That's interesting. She must have had a higher status than him. To have a name like that, while a commoner he must be of some rank among the bourgeois.' Louise pauses in her wiping of a desk and lets the silence stretch out as she moves to the next. A basic ploy in discussion to control its flow. "How weird. So, your family... they have something to do with ships, then? Or trade? Are you a cabin boy? You look like a cabin boy."

Shinji shakes his head gently. "I really don't know much about my mother's family. She was... a scholar and a doctor, you could say, but she died while I was young. My father was the leader of a... well, you could say a private army dedicated to protecting a single city. I was raised with my aunt and uncle far away, until my father wrote to me to join him."

Louise looks at him oddly. "Your father's a mercenary? Wait... you're a mercenary?"

"Uhh... kind of? Sure."

"You're lying."

"Um..."

"Really, I don't believe you. You don't look even remotely -that- interesting. Just tell the truth already. I won't mind if you're just some porter or errand boy or something."

Shinji just shrugs. "What I was isn't important. It's not like I'm here to fight anyone anyway."

"You're my familiar. What if I order you to fight someone?"

"It depends? While I'll try to obey your orders, I'd feel really bad about going after children and innocent people. Others who are trying to attack you..." Shinji shrugs again. "Charge and hope for the best, I guess."

Or the -least-. Because making it rain blood is, again, not something normal people tend to do.

"Familiar, you fail to be convincing."

"There's not much I can do against normal people. I'm really better with housework, I'm not lying about that."

Shinji is getting good at this whole 'the truth greatly depends on your point of view' thing. He's not lying about anything, not directly.

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/7620797/3/