Months had passed since you came here to the palace. Months of hell worth your life. Your squabble with Roman had settled down. He was much more patient and tolerant but that didn't mean he hated you any less though he got better at hiding it.
You had made so much progress in learning medical herbs. It kept you busy for weeks with examinations and practicals to show your worth to your superiors. They acknowledged you but were quite disappointed that you lacked in the poisoning field. At least they thought. It's for the better. Even if you know everything about poison and antidote, you showed that. You didn't want to become the weapon they could use.
Your efforts finally paid off. Now you had your room in the Healer's tower rather than the room in the maid's residents.
The Healer's tower is like the Black Tower of Magicians. But unlike the Black Tower, it worked on the ranking system. The more talented and skilled you are, the more luxurious and high-level you'll get. It had a total of 25 levels. It gets upgraded each year with residents changing rooms according to their measured-up skills. With you occupying the ground level. You had the ground floor room that barely consist of a bed and a small bookshelf. Simple and cozy just like your style. You were so happy to finally have your own space.
Nothing exhilarating happened in the past months. Your friendship with Claude and Felix got deeper and more strong.
Though the monotonous brick of ice has become quieter and colder. He just likes being there when you had your quality moments, no talk, nothing. A thing you wanted to redeem. By annoying him out of his radio silence.
"Claude!!" You exclaimed cheerfully. "I missed you!"
You launched yourself at him with a happy grin. Ready to hug the daylights out of him.
Claude didn't even blink. He merely sidestep and dodged your attack with a simple tsk.
Your face planted, grunting at the pain that shot up your forehead.
"We just met yesterday so there is nothing to miss. And haven't you learned your lesson yet? How many times have we been here? Can't you give up already?" Claude said flatly.
It's became a daily routine for you to try and hug him and for him to invade all your advances.
You sat up with a stubborn pout. "Can't you give up and let me hug you? Don't you know the saying 'A hug a day keeps sadness away!'.
"Don't make things out of the blue to suit yourself."
"But it's true. And if you don't want it, I'll just give my hug to Felix." You stuck your tongue out and stood up dusting yourself and sprinted to Felix who watched the whole exchange with a smile.
"Felix!! I missed you more."
Felix simply opened his arms to catch your incoming body effortlessly. He patted your forehead with a flowery smile.
Claude watched as you gave Felix a koala hug, melting into his arms like a baby. He clicked his tongue in irritation.
"Why do you always encourage her childish antics, Felix? Or have you only grown physically and are still stuck in a childlike mentality?"
Felix had become an expert at ignoring the jab from his brother. He simply beamed at him, a gentle aura surrounding him.
"I like her hugs. She's warm and soft. It does make me happy." Felix answered with an earnest smile. And you give Claude a smug look as if to say 'see what you're missing out.
"Insolent brat."
"Gah!"
You jumped back from Felix who suddenly let out a high-pitched shriek. Heart thudding in your chest, you let out a shaky breath.
"Hmm?" You tilted your head in confusion. "What's wrong Felix why--Oh."
A black spider the size of your palm was dangling from Felix's red hair. His eight yellow eyes blinked rapidly at the horrified Felix who was frozen stiff.
Felix shook his head vehemently to throw off the spider with another girly squeal. The spider landed a few feets away from your shaking form from trying to keep in your laughter.
"Pff--" You pressed your lips together to stop the chortles threatening to slip out. Petrified Felix with a girly scream was just too hilariously cute.
Claude made a face. "The hell is that? Felix kill it."
"Ah...m-me? A-alright." Felix whimpered like a punished puppy inching close to the black spider.
"Wait!" You stopped Felix from squashing him and brought it In your hands watching it slither on your arm while Felix and Claude watched with disturbed looks.
"This little guy here is harmless. Tantrul is what's it called. It probably sneaked out of the laboratory with me and ended up on Felix when we hugged. There's nothing to fear."
"Leave it to you to sneak out a freaking spider."
"Sorry. I didn't pay attention. It must have climbed on me when the professor was showing me its usage of spit for fungal infection. Sorry, Felix." You apologized. Felix shakily nodded still pale-faced.
"Wanna hold it?" You held the crawling spider out to them
"No." Claude took a step back with a disgusted look.
”I don't think I'd ever be able to hold it again." Felix squeaked out, laughing nervously as he backed away from you.
Claude looked at the trembling Felix who was busy giving the spider a horrified look and he smirked.
"Felix are you scared of a tiny spider? The future knight scared of a tiny spider, what an interesting story that would make."
Felix shook his head with an embarrassed look. "N-no, I'm not scared. It just surprised me!"
"Oh~"Claude's smirk grew more devious. "Why don't you hold it then? Go ahead, don't be shy. That thing is harmless."
"!" Felix whimpered, his doe eyes welling up in tears, lower lips shaking slightly.
Claude getting kicked out of it continued. "(Y/n), give the spider to Felix. He looks like he's dying to be friends with it."
You pursued your lips, shoulder shaking.
Stop, Claude. Enough with your teasing. Poor Felix looks like a puppy being wronged.
Felix, you're too cute to pass on the teasing. Blame yourself for being so adorable~~
"Claude, why don't you hold it? I'm sure this lovely spider would love to be your friend." You turned the table, feeling pity for Felix. Felix looked so relieved, giving you an admiring look like you were his knight in shining armour.
Claude glared at you for ruining his fun and simply replied. "It's disgusting and creepy. I don't want to be anywhere near it."
You laughed at the disgust on his usually deadpan face. "Don't worry. Your reaction is mild. When my momma had introduced it first to me, I ended up screaming bloody hell and climbed up a cupboard in fear. I didn't dare come down until Momma put it away." You remembered your very first traumatic encounter with it.
"Then how did you overcome your fear?" Felix asked genuinely miffed at how one can hold such a hairy creepy thing so easily.
"That credit goes to my fat-- I mean Iseka aka my nanny. Each time I ran away in fear, she'd drag me back and tie me to a chair and let the spiders crawl over me freely."
"What?!"
"Yes, yes. First time I fainted from sheer fear and disgust. It continued until I got used to it and became quite friendly with these creepy crawlies."
"Your nanny is crazy." Claude deadpanned.
"More like a sadist. Good old memories. Ah, what beautiful days I had until l came here." You wiped out a dramatic tear feeling nostalgic.
"Are you planning to go back to your village once you finish your education?"
You honestly didn't think about it. After Iseka had given you to Lionel to become Judith's member despite your wish to stay with her, the thought of confronting her again was painful.
"Hmm. Maybe I'll stop by. I don't know if Iseka would be happy or not." You said as you gazed into the distance. "But I won't limit myself to one place. The World has so much to offer. There are millions of options. I'll go through everything until I find the one thing that makes me happy."
Claude smirked slightly. "You're still insisting on travelling the world huh? So you must be ready to stuff your pea-sized brain with all the required knowledge."
"First of all I'm offended, I don't have a pea-sized brain. Get your facts checked. And second Nope. I'll just run away. Live my life as a fugitive!! Your eyes sparkled with excitement and hope. "I'll travel like a lone wolf. Slithering through shadows and melting away in daylight. I always wanted to do that!"
Claude rolled his eyes and flicked your forehead. "Come back down to earth, your dramatic idiot."
"Ow."
A sting on your forehead drew your attention to it. Feeling it throb in slight pain. Your bad landing on your forehead must have done a number on it.
You gently touched your bump, your fingers lit up in a green glow as a faint hum emitted from it, healing the bump slowly.
See, I'm a badass too now! I can do magic. The magic you hear!!
You smirked a tad bit proud of your new skill.
"So you finally found out your magic abilities, huh? Your mana core is now more visible too." Claude commented watching the green glow flicker out as your bump was gone.
You proudly puffed out your chest. "Yeah, well I'm going to start the training of mana manipulation soon. I'm just learning the basics now. I'm pretty neat in magic if I say so myself. But I can't do cool tricks like summon a sword or make things float so, yay for me." You dejectedly finished.
You couldn't believe your rotten luck. You had magic but not enough to use it for fun. The only thing you could do was heal even if that was limited.
Claude watching your disheartened face, clicked his tongue. He wasn't sure why but it poked him the wrong way. Feeling bothered, before he could stop himself, he opened his mouth. "You can."
You blinked, coming back from cursing your misfortune to gape at Claude in astonishment. "Huh? What? But the professor clearly stated that my mana is just above average person. I can only heal scratches or small wounds and increase the potent of healing herbs. That's it. Nothing cool at all."
"He's right. Your mana core is small but slightly big compared to the average person. But I'm not talking about it. I'm talking about Ether."
"Ether? What he has to do with anything." You were even more confused.
Claude rolled his eyes like he couldn't deal with your stupidity. "He's your familiar, isn't he? You could combine your mana core with his and merge it. Since you're already bound to each other by the pact, so your mana should be compatible with each other."
You recently found out about familiar when browsing through the library. Magical beasts who submit to humans become Familiar. These Magical beasts form a covenant to protect their human master to its last breath from any form of danger. You didn't know why Ether become familiar. Hell, you couldn't even remember how you formed the pact. All you could recall was that the word Familiar appeared on your palm and since then Ether never left your side.
You waved your hand at him in a hurry as you processed his words. "Wait, slow down. You're saying I could use Ether's insane magic."
"Yes. That's what I said."
"How?" You asked excitedly.
"Call him here."
"Alright." You closed your eyes and called your fickle cat. You found out that your magical cat could hear your mental calling to him. In seconds you felt a weight in your arms.
Meow.
Your cat who always liked to come and go as he pleased sweetly purred rubbing he's whiskers on your forearm as you held him.
Claude nodded and ordered. "Sit."
You sat down, cross-legged with Ether curling up on your lap.
He crouched and tapped the air between you and Ether instantly a glowing string of white became visible, connecting Ether's heart to your heart.
"What the---?!"
"It's your connection. This is how Ether keeps an eye on you."
You watched with fascination as the string swayed in the air, glittering in silver.
"This string shows that you're bound by a pact specific to you two only. It also can be used as a mana transferring link."
He tapped the air again and the string was gone.
"How do you know so much about it?"
"His highness is genius concerning Mana manipulation and spells and is quite powerful. He unintentionally created a link between us at the tender age of five. Just like your pact bound but not as strong." Felix boasted proudly like an older brother being proud of their little brother's achievements.
"Huh?"
"He means just like your pact that bounded both you and your Familiar Ether, we have our link but it's not a pact."
Felix nodded as he sat down beside you, joining the circle to help explain. "He had placed his excessive mana into me when he was only five. That mana created a connection between us. Like a Master and familiar."
"Oh. That's how you could tell Claude was calling you despite the distance." The realization dawned on why Felix was able to answer Claude's calling out of the blue.
He vigorously nodded. "Yes. Since his mana lies within my core I can sense when he's calling me. And due to that my mana is higher compared to my peers."
Claude intervened between our awe at his skills. "Difference is I gave my excessive mana to him because his core could handle it and withstand its power. But Ether can't give you his mana, your core is way too small and weak for it. Your heart would end up exploding if he tried to forcefully shove it into your core."
"What?!" You shrieked in horror.
"That is why I'm gonna teach you how to form a temporary mana portal. Through which you could use his mana as your own for a limited time."
Your initial horror vanished replaced by excitement as you bounced up and down unable to contain your eagerness. "Alright, I'm counting on you, Master!!!"
"Don't call me that."
"If that's what you want, Teach!"
He made a frustrated sound at the back of his sound as he pinched your cheeks and pulled them hard. "Keeping being annoying and I'll drop my offer."
"Ow! I'm sorry! Please find in your generous heart to forgive this little girl's insolence."
"You can't drop your childish antics, can you? Just for once act like you're not brain-dead."
You rubbed your cheeks, giving him a shit-eating grin. "Where is fun in that?"