17 Summon a Spirit, get a Princess for free!
Her explanation done, Myra patted little Stella's head, happy about her decision to free the cute little spirit who was already rather attached to Myra and unwilling to return to the weapon. After a while Myra returned her focus to the work again and looked through her dimensional pouch for materials.
"I have no materials for making a bow. Let us make your bow another day. Once we find a nice piece of wood I can make it for you."
A little bit sad, that she would not receive her weapon today, but also excited that Myra didn't just refuse her request and she would not only get a weapon spirit summoned in the first place, but it would also be a bow, Alyn was indeed lucky.
Myra spent some of the remaining time to improve her own weapon, or as she used to call it Stella's Home. The simple steel haft was soon replaced by mithril and the blades had some more star steel and a little mithril added as well. Not only did the weight become a lot lighter, but its sharpness and durability would improve a lot. Finally happy with the results the trio left the premises of the smithy after cleaning up the room.
"Time for dinner!" Myra happily said and then dragged the others away to find Liam and Aaron and go grab some food.
--
Aaron could not concentrate on the classes all day long. Not that his instructors could still teach him a lot, he usually trained on his own, but still his focus was not on training at all.
He finally understood why all those other students would be excited about relationships and seem to act strangely when it was related to their girlfriends or boyfriends. Aaron did not expect to ever find himself in a similar situation, but it was hard to deny that there was not much else on his mind.
When classes were finally over, it did not seem like he had achieved anything at all today. With dinner starting soon, he was looking forward to meet Myra again instead.
'What is she to me anyways? A friend?' Aaron wondered about their relationship.
Before he could think things through however, he heard the voices of Nell and Myra.
"Hey Aaron, over here, we saved you a seat!" Nell called out to him. Liam was sitting right next to him and Myra and another girl were sitting on the other side of the table.
He grabbed some food and then sat down on the seat next to Myra that was not occupied.
"How was your day?" he asked, after a while, trying his best to start a conversation.
"Fine. We got our weapons today." Myra did not explain a lot about what happened and seemed to be busy with her food. A simple one liner was all the information he got out of her. "Alyn, Stella, this is Aaron, he's a friend." she then said in between stuffing heaps of food into her mouth.
While Alyn politely nodded to Aaron and said "Hi" the little weapon spirit materialized next to Myra and looked at Aaron curiously for a few seconds, but obviously he was not interesting enough for the little spirit, because soon after without even a word she disappeared again returning to her upgraded home, which seemed a lot more interesting.
"She seems to already have a form." Aaron looked rather perplexed. "How did you achieve that?"
"Talking, obviously." Myra answered with yet another line, even shorter and with even less information than the last.
"Is that all you are going to eat?" Myra scrutinized his food, not only changing the topic of conversation, but also pointing out what was on Aaron's plate, which seemed to be made up of meat, meat and even more meat. "Eating only meat is not healthy!"
"It's alright, I don't need to eat healthy things." Aaron laughed, trying to change the topic away from his rather one sided meal.
"No way, eat some veggies too!" Myra disagreed completely and picked up some of her potatoes and carrots and moved them over to Aaron's plate, which made Nell, Liam and Alyn stare at them.
"They seem rather close." Alyn commented with a grin and soon after Nell and Liam burst into laughter.
Aaron on the other hand looked like he didn't know what to answer, while Myra had no idea what they were even talking about, blissfully unaware that she was the target of their laughter.
Thoroughly defeated by Myra's scolding, Aaron ate the vegetables that were added to his plate, once again questioning the wisdom behind this whole girlfriend thing that he seemed to have fallen into by accident.
"Why don't you help Aaron with his own weapon spirit Myra?" Nell asked all of a sudden.
"Sure, why not, we can meet up after dinner and I teach you how to wake it up and interact with it."
Aaron quickly agreed. He had no idea how Myra could help him with his weapon spirit, but meeting up with the girl already sounded like a nice idea, no matter the outcome. "Sure, you can come over to my room if you like."
There was even more laughter this time, when Myra got really flustered and blushed. "Well, I guess no one will disrupt us there. Will you join us as well?"
Silence answered her question. Neither the two brothers, nor Alyn wanted to join them.
"I think we will go shopping for some good piece of wood for my bow. Nell and Liam told me they can show me around." Alyn quickly found an excuse for them to get out of this situation.
Liam happily nodded. Yet again the topic was quickly changed, before Myra could find reasons to have them join her.
"Have you heard of the tournament by the way? They are going to make a ranking to test what classes the new students will be assigned to. All the more advanced students will move on to the advanced classes."
"You mean, Myra could join me in the advanced classes if she beats a few of the other students? That sounds fun." Aaron liked the idea of having Myra join him during classes. Maybe he would train less with her around, but at least it would not be boring.
"How strong are you Myra? Do you think you can manage to get to the advanced classes?"
"I think so … maybe … probably." Myra replied, not too sure herself how she would compare to the older students, but rather confident from what she had seen so far from their instructors.
"Princess Myra has exceptional skills, if she won't be able to get moved to advanced classes no one will." Alyn added, making Myra flinch.
"Princess?!" Aaron stared at the strange and unexpected revelation that Alyn had just dumped on him. He would have expected many things, but never would he have guessed that the little girl would be a princess.
Myra on the other hand frowned. She did not like that title and did not want anyone to believe she was a princess. "I'm no princess!"
"Oh, but at the examinations … is your name not Aer?" Alyn was rather confused. She was at the entrance examinations like all of the new students and she vividly remembered Myra making her name known back then.
"It is." Myra answered, but didn't explain further, her face telling everyone that this was a topic that she did not want to discuss anymore. Aaron and Alyn remained skeptical but they did not bring it up again, at least for now.
"Won't Nell and Alyn be left in the basic classes on their own though? I guess I can stay in the basic magic classes with Liam. There is a lot of interesting theory that I have never heard of anyways, but it will be hard for all of us to get moved to the advanced knight classes."
"Don't worry about us. You just go catch up with Aaron, we take care of each other here." Nell didn't seem to mind about staying in the basic knight classes himself. He was not as exceptional as Myra after all, one might even call her an oddball who did not really fit in. Even the instructors were now wary of her after the first two classes ended with Myra causing quite the uproar.
--
With dinner coming to an end and the students returning to their dorms, or various other places to spend the remaining time of the day, activity in the academy calmed down considerably.
Most students would now be inside of their rooms and do their best to study all kinds of different topics. Some were reading books they had borrowed from the library, some perused the notes they had written during classes, while a few others were meditating or testing some simple magic. The few that were still outside were mostly at the training grounds improving their fighting skills.
'Was it really just a day since I've met him and woke up here?' Myra wondered after she entered Aaron's room, this time without being carried over the doorstep. The atmosphere in the room was tense, as both of them still vividly remembered the morning when they woke up in the same bed.
"Alright, what exactly are we going to do about this spirit?" Aaron asked, before the silence could get even more awkward. He pulled off his cloak and then helped Myra put away hers as well before they sat down on the bed. Their shoes were quickly discarded, and they sat cross legged facing each other with Aaron's heavy blade in the middle on Aaron's lap. It was about 150cm long, with a straight blade without many embellishments and without any pretty design. Some might call it crude, while others would say it is practical. It was a blade for fighting and killing, not in any way for decoration.
"First we have to contact it and say hello, then we free it and then we will heal it. At the end I can also help you bind with the spirit properly."
Myra put her own hands over Aaron's, which made her blush again, before focusing on the spirit inside the sword. With Aaron holding his hands against the weapon, she could use his own connection with the spirit of the blade to guide the spirit and break all of the bonds and restraints that forced the spirit inside the weapon.
For the second time today she had to break a spirit free of its bonds and even though her own amount of spiritual and magical power was barely touched, her body was exhausted. She was already dizzy when she managed to break the spirit free and the dizziness just increased while she healed the spirit and helped an excited Aaron to bond with it.
The last thing Myra could think of, when she fainted right next to Aaron, was that this whole scene seemed slightly familiar.
"Thank you for the help, this is amazing!"
"Myra? …" when the girl no longer answered and her body started to collapse right next to him, Aaron quickly caught her. For a while he was scared and worried about her suddenly fainting, but when he noticed that she just fell asleep and did not look hurt, he finally managed to relax a little.
'At least she's not clinging to me this time, so I will actually get some sleep.'
Aaron's worry quickly turned into amusement and a tender feeling for the girl that was hard for him to describe.
'It is already late, might as well let her sleep here tonight. I don't think it's necessary to wake up Alyn to bring her back to her room.'
He covered her with a blanket and let her sleep on one side of the bed, while he picked the other side to get some rest as well.
--
