The four months pass by faster than Miki would like to admit, and just a blink of an eye, she is standing in front of her father, saying goodbye.
"Take care of yourself, Miki." Her father said, hugging her tightly.
"I will, father." She replied, hugging her father back with an equally tight hug, she will really miss this. "Besides, we're going to meet each other very soon."
That's right, the magic knight entrance exams are only in two months.
Julius smiles. "Well then, are you sure you can fly alone this time? Do you want Marx to escort you still?"
"Dad, I assure you that I will be fine, I've always been fine flying by myself. Besides, I think it'll be safer if I fly alone too, since it's still daytime and people will be out more." She reasoned.
Nodding in return, Julius can only watch as his daughter, who he always notices has grown up, climbs onto her floating broom as she gives him a last wave.
"Goodbye, Dad." She smiled.
"Goodbye, my little star." The wizard king waved back, and Miki was off.
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"Hey princess, where are we even going?" Star asked. Sitting on Miki's shoulder, the fairy watches as the capital gets smaller and smaller each second Miki flies.
"Just be patient Star, you'll see when we get there." Was the only thing Miki replied to her.
After their "heart to heart" conversation, the two of them seemingly act like nothing had ever happened before, which Star partially is grateful for. But still, the fairy couldn't help but feel a little awkward around the princess after talking about something so personal.
After flying for a long amount of time, Miki finally perked up when she saw a familiar scenery.
"Ah! We're here Star!" She told the fairy on her shoulder.
"Ugh finally!" Star groaned. "I'm sick of being in the air for hours now."
Miki only giggled before she looked around at the area.
"I can't land directly in the village." She commented. "So I'll need to make a detour into the forest nearby."
Landing slowly on the ground below her, Miki glanced around her surroundings again, making sure no one had seen her land on a broom. In Hage, the most everyone knows about her is that she has relatives in another village, and if she got caught knowing how to ride a broom, hiding her real identity will become harder.
"Where are you going now? Why go to this far away village in the forbidden realm anyway?" Star asked.
Only smiling, Miki slowly walked to the skirt of the forest where there lay a beautiful scenery of a small village, it looked like any other village with people working and children running around. But to Miki, it is more than that.
"Because Star...this place is my second home."
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The small ones were the first ones to notice the girl running their way, immediately they jumped and screamed: "MIKI'S HERE! MIKI'S HERE!" Rekka ran into the church to tell everyone else and mere seconds later, father Orsi, sister Lily and Nash immediately ran out to welcome her, even Nash couldn't hide his excitement in meeting the girl again after a while.
"Miki! Welcome back!" Sister Lily said as she hugged the ginger.
"Good to see you back, Miki." Father Orsi added.
"Thank you, sister, father." Miki smiled at them "I'm glad to be back too!"
"It's good to see you again, Miki." There it is, the voice of the person she had longed for the most.
"Yuno..." Miki mumbled as she turn around and saw him, she couldn't contain her smile as she began to ran towards the dark hair boy when-
"MIKIIIIIIIII!" A loud voice boomed across the village as a familiar boy with ash-blond hair ran towards Miki in full speed and tackled her in her hug, it startled her so much that she fell on her back, with the boy along with her.
"Miki! I miss you so much!!" Asta exclaimed as he kept hugging her, seemingly unaware that he just tackled her to the ground.
"T-That's great Asta, I miss you too..." Miki managed to gasp. "How are you?"
"Well done Asta, you had to ruin the reunion for the two of them." Of course, Nash had to add in his sassiness.
"Hey! What did I even do?!" Asta rebuked, jumping off Miki.
As the ginger groaned and recovered from the fall, a hand reached out to her and Miki looked up to see Yuno.
"Yuno..." she muttered, once again entranced by the boy in front of her. It's only been 4 months since she saw him, but it felt like years and she misses him so much.
"I'm glad you're back, Miki." Yuno said as he helped Miki get back on her feet. "Did you have fun on your visit?"
"I do." Miki smiled back. "I also hope that you and the others are doing well."
Looking at their small church family with Asta yelling at Nash while sister Lily tried to calm him down, Yuno only sighs.
"I think we're just fine." he said, still holding Miki's hand in his.
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That night, the church had a small party to welcome Miki back to their little village. The meal was small, with only a few portions of dry tatoes, but it was warm and happy with all of the people she cared about.
They talk about a lot of things, from Miki telling (made up) stories about her so-called relatives to Asta excitingly telling the ginger of how he had begun training with his new grimoire and sword. Even Yuno opens up a little by asking questions.
At times like these Miki is really happy, being in the capital with her father was also great, but in Hage, she felt like she could truly be free without any burdens of being the princess of the current Wizard king (not that she minded them).
Outside of the church, Star closely watches Miki's interaction with the rest of them, with the knowledge that she knows of Miki's true identity, her beliefs of what she had known of nobles and royals had been challenged again. The thoughts of whether she could trust this kid that seemingly embodies what she despises the most makes her hesitant.
"Maybe I can try..." she thought. "Maybe, just maybe...I can trust her."
Miki stayed at the church that night when the children suggested it, all of them continued to tell stories and catch up on whatever they had missed until they fell asleep. When the had sun barely risen, Miki suddenly heard a loud voiced echoed in her head:
"Hey princess, wake up, wake up!"
"Seriously, are you really gonna continue to sleep like that?"
"Hey hey! I'm losing patience here."
Giving up on her sweet sleep, Miki slowly opens her eyes to see a familiar floating figure.
"Star?!" She whisper-shouted when she saw the fairy. "What are you doing here?! You're going to get caught!"
Hastingly looking around her, the ginger felt a sense of relief when she still saw everyone else sleeping soundly.
Looking out of the window, she saw that the sun hadn't fully risen yet.
"Why are you calling me up this early?" She asked, still whispering.
"I need you out by the forest, and no, I'm not accepting a 'no'. You have 15 minutes". Star just stated before she flew out of the church using the small space between the windows. Leaving no space for the hundreds of questions the girl has.
But at least Miki knows how she got in.
Although still confused, Miki quickly prepares herself to go into the forest per Star's request because this is the first time in their whole meeting that Star had requested her something, so it must be important.
Sneaking out of the church and going into the forest isn't really a challenge as people are still asleep, but she probably had to make an excuse later on if anyone asked her about her disappearance.
"So what do you need me to be out here for?" Miki asked.
"I'm not gonna beat the bush with this, you know I'm a spirit right?" Immediately, Star's question had caught Miki off guard again.
"...I have my suspicions, but there is never concrete evidence that confirms you are one." Miki confessed, she knew she couldn't hide the fact that she had been secretly studying the fairy.
"Then let me confirm that right now, yes, I am a spirit, the celestial one, in fact." Star didn't react to Miki's confession, she continued to talk like nothing had happened.
"Then what are you? I've searched everything and yet nothing about your existence comes up!"
"Because I erased the evidence of my existence on my own. And don't even ask me why, you already know the answer." Star grimaced.
"I do unfortunately." Miki sighs. "But is that the reason why you call me out here? To tell me that you're a spirit?"
Without answering the question, Star simply sways her hands and Miki's grimoire suddenly flies out of the holder and begins to float in front of the both of them.
"I'm not like other spirits you see." Star began to explain as she continued to flip the 4 leaf grimoire. "Unlike other spirits who can choose whoever they see fit to serve, I am connected to this specific four leaf grimoire because it is the only magic source with the same attribute as me. See it as a 'have one get one free' situation, albeit I can roam around freely outside of the grimoire."
"Then if the fact that you are a spirit, then is your power..."
"Yes, my power is to enhance yours, but not in the way you think."
The grimoire stops at the page where there is a giant lock symbol in the middle of the page, Miki recognizes that page, she remembers reading it before being sucked into where Star was sealed.
"This is my magic." Star stated as she pointed at the page. "Unlike other spirits who enhance already existing spells from your grimoires, my magic creates a completely new set of spells."
"So you mean, I can have 2 different magic attributes?" Miki asked.
"Not really, this is more like a branch of your original magic." Star just shrugged.
"Then what is this new magic uh...branch?" Miki asked again, beginning to understand what Star just told her.
The lock symbol on the page of her grimoire began to disappear as the page began to fill in with letters and pictures.
"I had sealed this part of my magic in the grimoire when I sealed myself in the astrolabe. Don't ask why, you also know the answer to that." Star replied, giving back the grimoire to the princess.
Choosing to listen to what the spirit said, Miki didn't ask any further question, instead, she chose to look into what the pages said after the seal had been released.
"Amazing..." She gasped. "I never thought I could see the magic of spirits. But I can't read any of this..."
"Of course you couldn't, it's in the language of the spirits after all dumbass." Star only scoffed.
Miki is already used to Star's rudeness already so she just ignores it.
"But why did you break the seal for me now?" Miki finally asked the question she had been wanting to ask.
Star stayed quiet for a bit, as if contemplating whether to tell the girl or not before deciding yes.
"Because I decided to put a little faith in you, that's all."
Upon hearing the answer, Miki couldn't help but smile, after all this time, finally, finally the spirit had opened up to her and the two could be partners now.
"Hold your horses princess, I'm not saying I fully trusted you yet." Star sassed. "But I would be lying to myself if I said you're all like the other nobles so I decided to give you a chance."
With a determined gaze, Miki looked up at the spirit.
"You don't have to be worry about that, Star, I won't let you down."
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A/N: Ayyy new chap! For real tho, this chapter is harder than I want to admit, but it's also a fun chap to write tbh.