Chương 74: “The Pug Will See You Now”

The walk to the lecture halls were mostly uneventful. Anna chattered on for most of it. The cage-carrier swung gently between her hands. Liana, on Anna's other side, listened more than she spoke, and would often laugh and converse back at the right moments. Celestia walked between both of them and listened to it all without comment. Liana had visited Anna's lab over the previous week, and the two girls had taken to one another at the drop of a hat. These two characters… people, were not supposed to meet at all.

What did it mean for the story, then, that they were already this close? It was a question Celestia could not answer anymore. The original Liana, though shy, had been the most level-headed one of Arthur's party, the one who kept the other three from going in three different directions. Arthur was Arthur. Serena Flamesy, just like her name, was the hot-headed one, and Eryndis Sylvana would prefer to just laze around and not do anything at all.

Once she had gotten comfortable with them, Liana had been the one to ease up fights and help everyone with other duties in the party.

'Surely she's still in his party?' The thought couldn't help but appear in Celestia's mind. She couldn't really ask Liana directly without sounding suspicious; the girl had made no mention of Arthur to Anna, and Celestia saw this as a mistake not to plant someone to check Arthur's location at all times. Anna was, at present, demonstrating something with her free hand to indicate a theory that Celestia had no understanding about, purely happy that she had a friend to discuss her passions with.

If there was a reason these two had found their way to one another, it would reveal itself in time. Celestia was no longer concerned in keeping the original course. Her concern was in seeing where this one led. For today, though, she had only one class on her schedule, just a simple history elective. After the class, she returned to her dormitory. Though there was still work to do, there wasn't any need to rush. There was also the factor that the slave brigade had entered Floor 10 today.

Once they finished, they can proceed with the next step, mining. But there was one thing that egged at her after the funeral. She didn't blame herself for their deaths, but had still felt slightly bitter at the idea that she could have done more for them. Take Paimon for example, the young girl had grown into someone capable of protecting herself because she had been given the information to do so. And each slave within the brigade could have that, too.

But information was the one thing Celestia had been hesitant to give them. Even after their time under Celestia's care. The relationship between her and the brigade was, at its core, transactional, considering that she had given them a way out of slavery so long as they fulfilled their obligations and saved up money. In the end, she had landed on a compromise.

The information she gave them was a watered-down version of the floor's trial, not the full impairment of all senses, but one that would dull rather than outright rid or harm their senses fully. Each of them could decide for themselves which they could afford to live without for seven days. She had warned them not to bite off more than they could chew.

'I would prefer not to spend any further coin on graves,' she had told them. And that was that. Now, with the afternoon ahead of her and the brigade decided, there was the second matter. The matter of Sir Ozy. Celestia turned in her chair to look at him. He was in his usual spot on the floor-bed in the corner, half-rolled onto his side, his snub face squashed against the cushion.

One eye opened a slit and looked at her across the room, and with a heavy sigh as if he was tired from doing the work of waking up, he closed it again. She drummed her fingers on the desk. The pug had, in past conversations, made certain claims about himself which Celestia had, for a time, dismissed as the ravings of an unusually verbose elemental summon. The terms had escalated each time she had questioned him, and the answers had grown vaguer the more direct her questions had become.

She had even threatened him with imprisonment in a smaller cage and starvation. He had, in each case, rolled onto his back and waited her out. Whatever he knew, and however he had come to know about her, Celestia had reached the limit of what she could do through her own efforts. This was why it had to be left to an expert. Celestia continued tapping her fingers against the desk. Professor Fae. The professor had, since the incident at the first semester, tried her best to avoid Celestia.

In fact, there was a letter on the floor of her dormitory room waiting for her. This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it — In light of recent demonstrations, the undersigned is satisfied that Lady Reingarde's mastery of Elemental Tuning exceeds the curriculum's bounds. Lady Reingarde need not attend further sessions. Prof. Fae The phrasing had been formal, but it was clear that the intent was: please, for the love of all things, do not come back to my classroom.

As she kept looking at her elemental summon, who was currently snoring, Celestia stood up from her chair. * The previous semester had not been a pleasant time for Professor Fae. She had spent most of it in the academy forest, in the small wooden cottage she kept there for retreats where she can relax and commune with the spirits unbothered. Or, that was what she had told the principals. Truthfully, she didn't want to be on campus when Lady Reingarde was around.

Professor Fae had not, in her life, been this afraid of someone. Of all the bonds she had cultivated over the years, The Prism Serpent was one of the most valuable spirits she had, belonging to a mythology from an old age. She had not been able to summon it again, hoping that she could at least salvage the broken contract, but sadly, it was no use. Wendy was another matter. The ice bird had taken to roosting on the windowsill even when Professor Fae hadn't summoned her, as if trying to apologize to her.

A foremost expert in elemental spirits, the academy's own master of the bonded discipline, was supposed to be able to read her own creatures better than anyone alive. This ran both ways: as she could press her intent into the bond, she could receive theirs in return. Once both summoner and summonee had developed a close relationship, it was possible. And Fae had no problems in that regard with all of her elemental spirits. However, what she had felt, on the day of the demonstration, had not just been refusal.

There was respect, awe, and fear. These impressions that she hadn't really understood back then, she felt from her bond from the Prism Serpent and from Wendy, which had been directed at the little brown beast. At the small, snub-faced thing on the arena floor. It was a particularly beast with eyes that looked in two directions, and nostrils set high on a nose that was squashed. By any normal account it should have been the most ridiculous-looking spirit, considering the many spirits Fae had seen over her lifetime.

But by the account her spirits had given her, it was not. Wendy, who looked like a small ice bird, was in fact a very rare ice-phoenix, and did not particularly fear anything she had ever encountered. Though old spirits could feel that way toward older spirits. Age, in the spirit world, hardly mattered. What was important was the concept and the species of said spirits.

The pure dragons of the deep east, the star-spirits, and the fairy-courts, to name a few; those that lived in legend and seldom appeared anywhere a person could easily verify their existence, other than through written text and folklore. Categories of being. That was why she had spent the semester break searching. She had emptied her own library and the academy's.

She had written to several other elemental summoners of similar standing, including the one in the western kingdoms with whom she rarely contacted due to her utmost disgust at the man. She had even written a request to the Adventurer's Guild, issuing a request for anyone who had encountered, read, or knew about such a spirit. But sadly, the responses were of the unfavorable kind. She set down the teacup she had been turning in her hands. The first day of the new semester had begun.

Her assistant was, at this very hour, currently reading the materials for the Elemental Tuning lecture in her place. She had hired him the previous semester to teach in her place. Technically, she was not in breach of her contract with the Academy. The terms of her appointment required that the Elemental Tuning curriculum be delivered to a satisfactory standard, and that the professor of record remain available for consultation with the faculty board. But she was toeing the line, and she knew it.

She had pulled the same arrangement last semester. Her assistant had handled the lectures. The principals hadn't raised the matter then, because they knew of her odd personality, and because her reputation still carried enough weight to excuse the absence. If she did the same thing again this semester, there would be definitely be a hearing. The principals would ask her why the academy's foremost authority on elemental spirits had not set foot in her own classroom for nearly two consecutive terms.

And what would she tell them? That she was afraid of her student? If Celestia had been throwing her name around, if there had been threats or intimidation of the kind the noble-born occasionally employed against faculty, Professor Fae could have made her case. At the very least, the academy would support her. But no such thing had happened. Celestia had not, at any point, even so much as actively threatened her or intentionally disrupted class. And Professor Fae wasn't keen on lying about what had happened either.

She drank the rest of her tea and set the cup down with a quiet clink. The second semester would bring new students into Elemental Tuning. First and second-years who had acquired elemental eggs over the break, and even the occasional transfer student who arrived with a bond already formed. New spirits, who she so dearly wanted to meet. She wanted to see and study all of them. But for now, she held herself back.

She had sent her assistant to the first lecture of the day with a secondary instruction: check whether Lady Reingarde was present in the class. If she was not, if the letter had done its work, and Celestia had accepted the arrangement, then perhaps Professor Fae could return to her office-classroom next week. If she was present, then Professor Fae would need to think of something else. She leaned back in her chair and closed her eyes. The cottage was quiet.

The forest outside made its usual sounds: wind through the leaves, rustling of the grass. Knock. Knock. Professor Fae opened her eyes.

'Hm?' Only a handful of people in the academy knew this cottage existed, so who could be visiting her today? She stood up from the chair. She was halfway to the door when she noticed the windowsill was empty. Wendy, who had been sitting there for the better of the day, was gone. She reached for the handle and pulled it open.

"Hello—" Celestia von Reingarde stood outside, wearing her academy uniform and holding a small cage-carrier with one hand. Inside the carrier, something flat-faced and brown was pressed against the front grate, snoring. Professor Fae stared.

'Wendy! You betrayed me again!!'