After a great meal and a well-deserved bath Ray was heading to one of the guest rooms he was allocated on the second floor when a voice calls down to him from the third.

“Ray, would you come up here for a second.”, Luke shouts down to him.

“Sure.”, Ray answers confused.

As he goes upstairs where Luke leads him back into the conference room where, Arthur, Anna, Regi, Lilly and Mary were already standing

“what's going on?”, Ray asks awkwardly, taken aback. Luke walks around to where the others are and speaks.

“Once again we just want to say, thank you, for saving Lilly.”, Luke says. The rest of them bowing their heads in respect.

Ray was taken aback, both the royal families of the beast-men were bowing right before him in respect, “It's really no issue, I did it on a whim, it's not like I knew who she was.”, Ray said

“And that's what makes it even more valiant, you saw something wrong and went to help without ulterior motives.”, Anna replied.

Ray looked at Lilly, who caught his eye and smiled.

“When I asked you previously, if there was something I could do to repay you, you mentioned you had a request.”, Luke states.

“Yeah, we will grant you anything...”, Anna interjects, “...For example, if you were to ask for Lillys hand in marriage. We would happily accept.”, Anna said smiling, looking at her daughter. Lilly blushed profusely, she looked at her mother, then at Ray, who had gone slightly red, back at her mother and back down to the ground, steam coming from her head

“Oh my.”, Mary said chuckling.

Regi nods his head in agreement, however Arthur tries to stifle a laugh, Ray looks to Luke who looks as if his soul had been sucked right out of him.

“D-don't worry, I’m not gonna force your daughter to marry me.”, Ray said patting Luke on the back.

“I wouldn’t mind...Eventually.”, Lilly said in a quiet voice that reverberated around the room.

Anna patted her daughter on the back proudly whilst Luke collapsed to the ground, repeating “My little girls too young for marriage.”, in a mentally defeated voice

Rays face went bright red. He looked at Lilly who was slyly watching him.

“I-I’m honoured b-but isn’t there l-like an order too those types of things like... dating and you know... stuff.”, Ray responds flustered, he wasn’t ready for marriage or kids or anything like that just yet, he was only 18 and Lilly was only 17. Though apparently in this world she was already considered an adult.

“Oh... do you perhaps not like my daughter?”, Anna asked Ray, eyebrows raised, she was very clearly enjoying this.

Lilly looked up at Ray, with an almost sad look in her eyes.

“It’s not like that... I... think Lilly's amazing.”. at these words, Lilly's tail and ears both wiggle in joy.

“Now, now, stop teasing the poor boy, you can’t rush these things. It will happen when it happens, besides, your husband seems to be in a bad state.”, Mary says, placing a hand on Annas shoulders and pointing at Luke, who was currently passed out on the floor, twitching.

“Not to mention your own daughter, you're exposing her.”. at these words, Annas looks at Lilly, who was bright red, tails and ears wiggling.

“AHEM. Perhaps I went a tad bit too far with the teasing.”, Anna replies.

After taking a few minutes for everyone to regain their composure, they return to the matter at hand.

“ehem. So, Ray, have you decided on what you would like as a reward... aside from my daughter.”, Luk asks

Ray blushes slightly but continues. “Well, you see, I’m kind of conflicted on 2 things, I’d like to send the kids to school, after what they’ve been through, I believe they would benefit from it greatly being with kids their ages and experiencing some normality again. Yet, I also have a selfish request of learning Beast kung-fu, as you know through my stories I have the power of the Phoenix, however I feel I have grown too reliant on this power and so I need to learn more ways to fight, after all, this power is quite destructive and can harm those around me as well. I want to play a part in defeating this demon and that why I need to get stronger and improve and learn as many skills as possible.”, Ray responds.

“Well, you see, we were planning on sending the children to school any way, along with Kay and Arnold, Lillys younger cousin. So, you don’t need to worry about that.”, Mary says smiling at Ray.

Ray beams with joy, he was glad, the children all seemed like they missed that, and after what they’ve been through, they deserve to be able to relax and be able to do what normal children do.

“As for learning Beast kung-fu, I can teach you that, though, you can only learn if you have the aptitude for it. If you Can’t partially transform, then I’m afraid that you won’t be able too. Out of all the people in this room only Me and my father can.”, Luke replies.

Ray was shocked, he had no idea that it was that rare of a thing.

“Don’t worry, I know I can.”.

“Then I will personally train you myself, for the six months before the Elves and Dwarves arrive, in time for the meeting and tournament.”.

“Thank you.”, Ray says bowing his head.

“No need to thank us, this is us thanking you.”, Arthur states

“Of course you are free to remain in the castle too.”, Mary replies smiling

“Thank you. If there's any work that needs to be done or you need my help in any way. I will gladly help so please just ask.”.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

“We’ll keep that in mind.”, Anna says smiling

and with that, the small meeting is over, and as everyone heads off to bed, Ray spots Anna whispering something to Lilly. As Ray begins to descend the stairs to the second floor he is stopped by Lilly.

“R-Ray.”, Lilly asks nervously.

“Y-yes...”, Ray responds nervously. For some reason after the conversation, they had just had, there was a strange tension in the air.

“What are you doing tomorrow?”.

“I was going to walk around the town and explore. You know, it's my first time here.”.

Lilly's ears perk up, “Great, I know this place like the back of my hand, I can show you around the place.”.

“Sure, that sounds great.”, Ray says smiling.

“Great... meet me in the front yard at lunch, we can get something to eat whilst we’re out.”, Lilly says returning the smile.

“Sure, that sounds nice.”.

“Bet, it's a D-date then!”, Lilly stammers and without letting Ray reply, she rushes off to a room and slams the door shut.

Ray stands there frozen, face bright red, “a date.”, Ray thinks, the words bouncing around his mind repeatedly.

“I’m not going to be able to sleep a wink.”, Ray thinks to himself as he descends the stairs to his room.

His room was huge, it was the size of a bungalow, it had a giant Bed in the centre of the room against the wall, tall wardrobes, a fancy looking desk with a mirror in front of it and a Luxurious chair in the corner. For the limited things in this room, it was evident that the rooms were absurdly big to just be a guest room and couldn’t imagine how big the Royal family's rooms were.

“I’m going out on a date with a beautiful cat girl... who's a princess. And she asked me. Does that mean she likes me?”, Ray thinks to himself as he lies down on his bed, face still bright red.

And just as anticipated, filled with nerves and excitement at going out on his first ever date with a girl, let alone a beautiful cat girl princess in a fantasy world, Ray barely got any sleep.

The next morning as they all say around the table, Ray noticed Lilly glancing at him eagerly, she was clearly excited for their date. After breakfast Lilly hurried upstairs and locked herself in her room, when Ray asked Anna what Lilly was doing, she winked at Ray and informed him that Lilly was excited and was getting ready for their date. Ray was confused though... lunch wasn’t for another 4 hours or so. After that Ray went to find the kids yet none of them were in their rooms, after looking around all upstairs he descended to the bottom floor to see them all with Regi getting ready to leave. He hurried over to them.

“Where are you guys going?”.

“The old ma-, I mean former king is going to show us around the school that we will be attending.”, Leo says wagging his tail

“I can’t wait!”, Sara says eagerly, practically jumping with joy, even Sky, who was usually quite calm looked ecstatic.

Regi laughs, “I’m going to show them the grounds, get them their clothes and let them choose classes.”.

“Choose classes?”, Ray asked confused.

“Yeah, we have mandatory lessons like Math, Language and history, however the others are all dependent on what the student wants. There's magic theory, practical magic, skill theory, practical skills, craftmanship, research, combat and strategies, the list goes on.”.

“That's very interesting.”, Ray said, it was slightly different to schooling in his old world. There was so much freedom here.

“Do you want to come with us?”, Regi asks Ray.

The kids all perk up in excitement.

“I’d love to. But I have a prior engagement.”, Ray says somewhat sheepishly.

After Regi and the kids depart, Ray walks around the grounds of the castle, basking in the sun for a while then returned in doors. Ray decided to go and check up on Alex, who he hadn’t seen all day, though that was to be as expected as the sun was put, he knocked on the door. However, there was no answer. As he walked into the room, Ray spotted a note on Alexes's bed.

“I have gone on a little adventure into the jungle where it is safer for me. My goal is to try and evolve into a vampire lord, so I do not have to hide from the sun. I will stop by periodically to see everyone. See you guys when I do”, The letter wrote.

Ray was a little disappointed reading that letter, he was going to miss not having Alex constantly around, though he understood why and respected Alexes's desire to get stronger and ability to fit in with the others. As he left Alex's room and entered his own, he saw a pair of smart clothes on his bed. Green dress trousers, a white shirt, and green trench coat, it all looked quite expensive. As he walked over to the clothes he spotted a note.

“Everyone must look dapper for a date. Go get em, signed Arthur.”, The note wrote.

Ray sighed, he guessed he’d be expecting this quite a bit and though he appreciated the gifts, he kind of felt bad for them having to buy him things.

“Maybe I should get a job.”, Ray thinks to himself, as he puts the new clothes on. Resting his old bear fur clothes on a chair in his apartment sized room. He now possessed 3 outfits. The smart clothes he was wearing now, his bear fur clothes he would probably be using for training and his old clothes from his world which he used as pyjamas just like he did back then.

After putting on his clothes and hearing the Maids signaling it was time for lunch, he left his room and headed down the stairs. He was slightly nervous, but more than that he was excited. His very first date, was about to begin and it was with a beautiful princess too.

“God, I hope I don’t ruin this.”, Ray thinks to himself as he opens the front doors of the Castle.