39 Walking is man's best medicine

Myra thought a long time about how she would not only find, but also convince a Phantom Cat to join her. It might have been easier if she wanted to convince one of them to join her to fight someone, but becoming a mount was a totally different thing.

These magical beasts were surely prideful and would not easily agree. There was one thing however that held true for all of those magical beasts, more so than even for their animal cousins who did not have any magical power.

They were prideful, but they also respected strength. If you were stronger, they would respect you. If you were stronger and offered them something they wanted, they would follow you. For how long? Under what conditions? This very much depended on what you could offer and how much they liked you.

As intelligent and strong they might be, this made them different from humans, who might hide behind lies and schemes. The world of magical beasts was a lot simpler when it came to negotiations.

In order to convince them though, she would need something different than this tiny human form. She would need something that would convince even the strongest of them, that she was not someone to be messed with, a power far beyond them.

It did not matter if it was only a first impression. None of them would mind about her having a small human body once a deal was made, but to get to that point she would have to use something more awe inspiring.

"So many things to do and so little time." her sigh however did not change the situation. She wanted to complete the array the day before, but did not even find the time to visit the shop.

"Well, there is always a next day." Myra continued to eat her lunch and got ready for afternoon classes. "Once this array is done it will also save some time, at least once or twice a week."

"Anything we can help you with?" Aaron asked her and put some more meat on her plate as if to challenge her after facing all those vegetables.

"The brothers are already busy with the holdings and Alyn is still not back from her journey to Aenweidh. I don't think there is much to be done. Perhaps you can check on the furniture while I complete the array?"

"I guess you want it to be ready to stay the night there with Rae?"

"Yes, it would be nice for her to finally have a real home, with a real room of her own. We can fill it with toys and sweets and love and it will be amazing!"

"Don't turn her into a foodie! Not everyone can keep their weight and burns through food like your body does." Aaron just looked at her plate that was nearly empty, when he had barely started touching his food, as if to make a point.

"Don't worry I will help her with this problem." Myra confidently declared.

"What, you want to steal her sweets and eat them for her, to help her stay healthy?"

"What?" It took a moment for Myra to realize what he meant with his words. 'Why would I steal something from Rae?'

"Don't be silly Aaron, of course I won't eat her food. I will help her magically strengthening her body."

"I knew that kid would end up like you, why am I not surprised?"

"Pff." Myra had to laugh about their argument.

The afternoon passed quietly, as did their journey to the city. All the travelling around made Myra a little unhappy, but there was nothing to do about it currently.

While Aaron made sure that the remaining workers would have no trouble completing the forge, which was the last part except for the furniture still missing, Myra completed the transference array.

"Finally done" she said after some time and happily looked at all the magic runes and formations that would give even an archmage a headache just looking at it.

"Can you go pick up Rae? Then I check on the progress of the school building."

"Me?" Aaron was really confused why she would hand him the task of picking up Rae.

"Yes. If I'm always the one to pick her up and be around, she will never get to know you." Myra intentionally left this job to Aaron, not because she didn't want to pick Rae up herself, but because she wanted Aaron to get used to his new role as well.

"Are you already treating me as her father figure?" Aaron asked jokingly and to his surprise Myra just nodded.

"Yes. It comes with the boyfriend title. If you don't like it, you shouldn't make me dance with a skimpy outfit in the middle of the night."

"I surrender. I go pick up Rae, I rather liked you dancing and wouldn't mind seeing more of it in the future." Aaron left the shop to go visit the inn, but not before he caught another kiss from the still blushing Myra.

--

It was barely an hour after Myra started organizing some more things for the school building, when she suddenly froze in the middle of her work. She left the workers just standing there in the middle of their discussion.

"I'm sorry, but I have to leave for a while."

If she just left like that, the workers might have been just confused and they might have asked her where she was going, but the sudden change in her attitude and the bone chilling cold aura that enveloped the young woman made all of them pause and hide like little animals.

When a powerful magic user gets angry, normal people would do their best to appease them in order to get out of the situation unharmed. Such an intense aura however did not even give them room to speak.

Finally Myra sped through the streets, much faster than any commoner would be able to see properly. They only saw a blur rush past them and felt the chilling aura stunning them for a second before it was already past them and gone.

When she finally arrived next to Aaron and little Rae her aura had already combined with the protection she used through the soul bound item. They were standing in a small side street with a broken carriage in the middle of the road, blocking all traffic.

Rae was sitting on Aaron's shoulders, who was giving her a piggyback ride. That sight alone was astonishing by itself.

Some guards were surrounding the carriage and the nobles who were standing right in the middle of them.

It was a rather unusual scene in front of her. She had felt Aaron's anger and killing intent as well as Rae's fear and reacted right away without much thinking. Aaron's anger was still visible, but the child did no longer seem to be scared.

The only thing keeping the handful of guards and the noblemen in front of them alive was the fact that Aaron seemed to have things under control and all of them were scared out of their wits.

Myra would be able to accept many things, but someone trying to harm her family was not one of them.

There were quite a lot of voices shouting and the noblemen seemed to be upset about something, while their guards just had no idea how they should approach the situation. Aaron alone scared them from doing anything that could be seen as a threat once he released his power and now a young woman with an even stronger aura suddenly came out of nowhere.

"What happened?" was all Myra asked and she ignored everyone but Aaron.

"Not much, these morons wanted to push me to the side. I pushed back. I think I won the contest."

"Rae, don't be afraid, no one is going to hurt you." Myra tried her best to have the little girl calm down. Strangely the girl was unusually calm for her young age and the chaotic situation.

Rae did not look like a scared child. She might have been scared at some point, but it must have passed as quickly as it had come.

"Darling are you not afraid? That's good."

Rae shook her head and told Myra why she was not afraid right away. "Daddy is protecting me."

Even Aaron's cold aura receded at the girl's words and a proud smirk could be seen on his face.

"Daddy?" now Myra looked at Aaron. "What tricks did you use to make her call you daddy?"

Aaron smirked even more. "I don't need tricks. Rae I think Myra would like to be called mommy too, what do you think?"

Their happy family conversation was rudely interrupted by some of the people that just caused the problems.

"How dare you attack me?! Guards, why don't you do something about these thugs who destroyed my carriage?"

"Sorry Lord Wallers, but it might be better if we leave." the guardsman didn't say that they were not their match, but it was easy enough to read between the lines.

"Very well, we will leave, but this will not end here, I will not let myself be humiliated in this way."

They just wanted to leave the little side street when a rather annoyed voice could be heard from Myra.

"Did I allow you to leave?"

"Ohh, I think mommy is upset." Aaron whispered to Rae as if discussing some conspiracy. "Watch carefully, this is going to be fun!"

"Miss, as it was our fault this time that caused the ... misunderstanding, please just let it go. It would not be a good idea anger Baron Wallers. We might not be powerful enough to fight you, but there would be a lot of trouble for assaulting a noble born person."

The guard tried his best to reason with Myra, but she was already angry and they would not escape so easily this time.

Myra looked to the side, where she could easily find a familiar aura hiding.

"General Jaros, as the Baron seems to be unable to control his carriage, we should do our best to help keep him safe. I would say a year of not being allowed to use a carriage or a mount at all and let him walk through the streets would be in his best interest."

General Jaros already had to deal with an angry emperor several times now, because he couldn't keep up with Myra. She was all on her own in Stonebrook and Jaros had no idea where she could have been. As such during the time when she didn't intentionally hide, he did his best to follow her every step.

When he noticed that she released her aura, it did not take him long to follow her to this side street.

"I think that is an excellent idea your highness." He quickly answered her, happy that this did not seem to end in bloodshed.

"Baron Wallers, I think you should thank Princess Myra for keeping your safety in mind. As for the order to not use some sort of transport and only walking on foot, I'm sure you will receive the command from his Majesty shortly."