Zero's Familiar is a manga that has an interesting premise. In a parallel world, the societies are divided between the peasants (most people, who can not use magic) and the nobility (the small minority who can use magic) ruling over them. At an Academy for magic, there is a young girl named Louise. Unfortunately for her, almost no one outside of her teachers, or particularly nice students, call her that. They all call her “Louise the Zero”, because she seems to have “zero” talent in magic.
Of course, in reality, she is one of the more powerful mages, but there is a reason why she usually can't do the spells.
Anyways, on a certain day, the mages mark their progress by summoning, and making contracts with, creatures who become their “familiars”. The rest of the student body taking part in the ceremonies get familiars ranging from frogs and moles to incredible fire-breathing salamanders and even a dragon for one student. Louise, she summons a young high school boy from our world named Hiraga Saito, who is forced to (since he can't go home yet, and seems to be too bewildered to protest much) make a contract with Louise. A teacher notices the unique rune on his hand (which appears somewhere on all familiars when a contract is made), and researches it with the headmaster.
It turns out the rune is the name “Gandalfr” (yes, the author borrows names just to make it familiar to the audience, and sound cool too, of course), and that Saito is the “reincarnation” of the famous mage who assisted the most powerful wizard in the history of their world. Of course, Louise and the others do not know this, as the headmaster fears that Louise and Saito will be the targets of military leaders of various kingdoms who would want to use Saito to win wars. Saito is nearly unstoppable when his powers are active, as the reader will see later on.
Unfortunately for poor Saito, Louise treats him as a combination pet/servant. This isn't as fun as some whose minds are in the gutter might think. She feeds, houses, and disciplines him like a dog, which she also calls him when she is angry with him. Painfully for Saito, this happens a lot. Don't get me wrong, Louise is not a bad person, but she is a victim of bullying from other student, has low self-esteem, and a different set of values that causes her to treat Saito in this deplorable manner. There are hints that she knows her actions are wrong, and the story seems to be one of her admitting this to herself and treating him better. This of course, leads to her and him falling in love.
Only a bit of the above do we see in the first volume of the manga as it is just the set-up for the first story arc. The only reason I can elaborate is the anime. There is a light novel series that pre-dates the other media, from which the manga and anime are adapted, but the manga seems, thankfully, to follow more the tone of the anime than the light novel. This makes it a lot more fun and humorous, and less angsty and so on.
I really recommend this manga, and the anime based upon it/it is based upon. It is terrific, and I assure you that you will really like it.