"Clover," Mira whispered from across the table, looking up from the menu. "I think this place is more expensive than I thought."

Reivan nodded, glowering at his own copy. "I think so too. I wouldn't have guessed from the outside."

"Must have been the broken windows."

"It was the broken plates and wrecked fruit stand nearby that did it for me. Gave the place that whole run-down look."

"Ah, yeah. That too."

"Should we leave?"

"I mean..." Mira scratched her cheek while looking around. "We were already given menus. Isn't it already too late to back out now?"

"Don't give up so quickly. Show some backbone."

"You're the man, here. Show some initiative. Besides, I can actually afford this sort of stuff... Plus, we just got paid the other day. It's not that big of a deal for me."

"You just called me poor."

"Well, you are. A cheapskate too. Don't deny it."

As they debated, a waiter walked up to them and asked them for their orders before offering a quick apology for any delays. Apparently, a few of their chefs understandably ran away during the earlier debacle, intent on securing their family's safety or spending their last few moments in life with their loved ones.

With that, Reivan and Mira both resigned themselves to spending a portion of their monthly salaries to avoid the embarrassment of walking out at this point. Mira didn't know much about crabs and left her order entirely to Reivan as she went to the bathroom, with the caveat that she wanted to try eating one with its shell still on.

Reivan went and ordered a kind of monster crab that was as big as a dog. They could just share it between themselves. It was caught in the waters between Aizen and Arkhan, so it was actually a breed he was familiar with, as it showed up on the palace dinner table from time to time. This one was cooked in a special wine he’d never heard about, so he was interested in how it would taste. The meat in the body was poisonous though, so they’d only be served the limbs.

Since Mira was angling for the experience, he went and ordered a platter of smaller crabs she could play around with. And in anticipation of her laziness, Reivan ordered additional dishes where all the crab meat had been extracted in some way already — to be delivered shortly after the initial course. And purely because he saw something familiar, he also ordered a cheap bottle of sake imported from Aizen.

It was all extremely expensive for a single meal, but they could handle it. The real Clover would have gone insane with how much he would spend, though.

"So." After returning from the lady's room, Mira crossed her hands atop each other on the table. "This is where you declare your undying affection for me. To which I, with a hint of deliberately polite reluctance, will tell you that I want to keep our relationship professional."

"In your dreams." Reivan rolled his eyes. “I was going to ask you about spirit beasts.”

“Oh. Well, what do you wanna know? I have, like, two of them.”

“Right…” he paused to think of how he was going to lead the conversation into his desired subject without sounding too desperate. “Is there a way to better ensure that I form a permanent bond with mine?”

Mira raised a brow, leaning an elbow on the table and resting her chin on her palm. “Why are you scared? From what I’ve seen, yours likes you. I wouldn’t be too worried.”

“I need to be more sure. My career is kind of on the line here, no?”

“Hm, I suppose so…” Mira seemed to think about it before waving a hand and procuring a tiny vial of something from her within her spatial ring. “I was going to tell you guys about it after the Tower gives us the rewards for the mission, but I guess there’s not much of a difference to telling you now. Here.”

Reivan frowned at the vial but took it anyway. “What’s this?”

Though he asked that aloud, he obviously still used [Supreme Insight] to gain more information.

[Low-grade Spirit Dew Potion]

A fusion of rare materials from both the spirit world and the material world. Drinking it will provide immense benefits to bonded spirit beasts after a brief digestive period, raising Might by an indeterminate amount depending on their current power. The stronger a spirit beast is, the less of an effect spirit dew potions will have on them.

This substance cannot be drunk by spirit beasts and must be consumed by their anchor instead.

This potion does not work on spirit beasts above 1000 Might.

‘Oh.’

Reivan kept his poker face on as he rolled the vial over on his palm since he wasn’t supposed to know what it did yet. But he could already infer a lot just from this.

“It's called a Spirit Dew Potion.” Mira gestured at it. “You drink it yourself, but it’s your spirit beast that benefits from it.”

“How the hell does that even work…?”

“Beats me. Maybe it’s because spirit beasts can’t process material food properly. They can eat it, but it's not like it fills them up or gives them energy. Boop, for instance, just likes eating tasty things. I’m not all that read up on it. I just drink the stuff and BAM. It just works.”

“Huh.”

“After you drink it, you’ll feel some kind of power. And then you can just kind of… direct it? You can direct it to your spirit beast so they can absorb it. It’s like mana, so it’s easy to do. Don’t worry about it.”

“What a lackluster explanation…” Reivan licked his lips in thought, suddenly remembering something. “What happens if you have more than one spirit beast?”

Mira nodded and pointed at him. “Good question, my lovely minion. In cases like that, the power can only go to one. Fawks gets mad if I don’t pick her though. Boop doesn’t really care about anything except being cute and eating food, so I just kind of let it go. And Elders also suggested that I focus on strengthening Fawks instead, so I’m just doing as I’m told. They even give me extra missions I can do on my off-time, like scribe work or just helping out with a few experiments.”

“I see. So this is how battlemages entice spirit beasts to form more permanent bonds, huh?”

“Exactly. Spirit beasts love this stuff. They go completely nuts over it. Fawks does, at least. Boop’s never had any. After you give them the power though, they’ll fall asleep for a few weeks. Maybe a month. But they come out of it a bit stronger than before.”

“And I’m assuming the Tower gives these out as mission rewards?”

“Yep.” Mira nodded, straightening up as the waiter neared with their orders. "If you’re strapped for cash, you can also sell your potions to other battlemages. The seniors will buy it from you for a lot, but I don’t suggest it. It’s better to use it than to sell or hold on to it. Especially right now, since it’ll help convince your spirit beast that forming a permanent bond with you is in their best interest.”

Reivan gulped down a mouthful of spit. “Is there a limit to how much I can drink?”

“Eh?” Mira’s jaws slackened for a moment before her pretty face screwed up in contemplation. “No… Not really, I don’t think. I drank three vials straight up one time, before I even realized how dangerous that could have been. But nothing happened.”

“Uh-huh... What about your spirit beast? I think I remember you saying she was named Fawks…?”

“Yep, that’s the one. She woke up at around the same amount of time. But with three vials’ worth of strength, as far as I know. Don’t worry, I’ll ask an Elder when I get back, just to be sure. I'll tell you all about it, together with the rest of the squad.”

“Oh, okay…” Reivan licked his lips, internally glad he didn’t have to worry about exploding when he drank the potion, eventually reproducing it through his ability. Depending on the quality, he had to drink more than a few vials worth before he could reproduce it, after all.

‘This is a great discovery…’

It also meant he couldn’t leave the Tower until he got enough of the stuff to reproduce it himself. Maybe he could even modify it so it worked even after the spirit beast reached 1000 Might. Hell, maybe he could have it work on Ascendants, that way, he could strengthen Freed, Valter’s spirit beast.

His guardian knight was due for a bit of an extra reward, after all. Well, he felt like Valter was always due for a reward, for all the shit he did. Still, Freed was already so strong, so there might not be any more room for growth in that department until Freed advanced its realm.

‘Okay. So I can’t just run off after this. I’m glad I got to know before doing anything drastic.’

Reivan returned the vial to Mira with a thoughtful grunt. "So we do missions to get these potions. Then we use the potions, which will then make our spirit beasts fall asleep, killing our efficiency in doing missions. But we'll then have time to learn spells, do some research, or do other things. Once our spirit beast wakes up, stronger than before, we repeat the process, doing harder missions for greater rewards. Do I have it right?"

Mira clapped her hands. "That's it, Clover. You now understand the flow of what'll happen for the entire year. And probably for the years after that. That's also why we'll be getting a break to do whatever we want for a while after we submit our report to the Tower."

"I see. Neat."

"Uh-huh. And don't forget, we get paid every month. That's pretty important. I guess in a way, the potions are our spirit beast's salaries. They're the Tower's employees too, y'know?"

Reivan grinned. "You've got a point."

Mira crossed her arms and looked incredibly smug when she smiled. "Of course, my minion. I'm the senior for a reason."

Reivan rolled his eyes as the waiter set their food on the table. They both tacitly agreed to pause their conversation, since they were talking about matters of the Tower. Once the waiter left, Mira curiously eyed the giant crab legs between them, gingerly prodding one of them with a fork.

She eventually picked one up and looked troubled at it before helplessly turning to him. “How in the world do I eat this…? My teeth can't bite through shells, y'know?”

“Watch.” Reivan took one of the giant crab legs, pressing a thumb in the middle and cracking it before pulling a portion off to expose the crab meat inside. It hung out and wiggled, an appetizing smell wafting into his nose.

“So that’s how you eat the legs…” Mira put down the giant legs and took one of the normal crabs in hand, inspecting it like it was some alien. “What about this?”

With a sigh, Reivan took one of the crabs and demonstrated that for her too. For a while, they simply ate, with Mira slowly and carefully trying to do what Reivan did. But she couldn’t quite get it right and asked Reivan to do it for her.

“You’re such a pain in the ass…” Reivan gave her the one he was about to eat instead before taking a new one.

Rather than taking it with her hands, however, she leaned over the table and took a bite. “Yum!”

“...Use your hands, will you?” Reivan complained, putting the half-eaten leg on her plate. Just in time, the waiter arrived with the rest of their dishes, which he’d instructed them to delay because he wanted Mira to actually try to eat it the hard way.

As expected, the moment an alternative showed up, she completely gave up on eating the first batch in favor of stuff she could eat with low effort, leaving Reivan to eat the rest.

‘God, she’s like a troublesome sister… Kyouka never caused me so much trouble though. She made me tea. And even peeled apples for me while telling me entertaining stories about her day.’

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

Reivan licked his fingers and took one of the empty shells, pouring sake into it before holding it over a small brazier he had asked for. He’d seen people do it in anime and had tried it a few times since turning eighteen in this world. Hector loved doing it too, and they often went out to eat crab from time to time.

The best ones he knew were found in Starwater City, where the most famous monster crab breeder was based, but the ones in Lightharbor weren’t so bad. Especially price-wise. Hector grew to prefer the latter, at least.

“What are you doing?” Mira was halfway finished with some kind of crab lasagna dish when she noticed Reivan doing something strange. “Is that some sort of voodoo ritual?”

“Why is that the first thing that comes into your mind…?” Reivan eyed her strangely before shaking his head. “I’m using the alcohol to get all the bits of crab meat I couldn’t take out with a fork. Soaks up the flavor too.”

“Yeah? That looks cool. Give me some.”

“I thought you didn’t like drinking?”

“I don’t. But I’m also curious.”

“Do it yourself. You’ve got shells too.”

“But what if I get it wrong and it tastes like crab guts? And aren't crabs poisonous?”

"Only the huge ones. These are small, see? That means they're not the monstrous kind that can control water."

"But what if I still get it wrong, though?"

“It’s not that complicated.” Reivan frowned and looked down. It was ready. He tipped the contents slowly into his mouth and sighed, licking his lips. “Good stuff…”

“Me too…” Mira called out from across the table like a kicked puppy.

“Fine, fine… I’ll make you a shot too.”

“I knew you were a good guy, vice minion!”

“You know what? I just changed my mind.”

After finishing their meal and washing their very crab-juicy hands, Mira, in a show of gallantry, paid for everything before Reivan could stop her. The privilege of a senior, she called it. Which was somewhat funny because Reivan was actually older than her by one year.

“That was fun!” Mira tapped her belly. It still looked flat, Reivan noted, which was surprising given how much she ate. “Y’know, Clover. I think I kind of get why you’re so popular. Even more now.”

“The hell are you talking about…?” Reivan eyed her strangely as they walked out of the restaurant. He’d asked a waiter for directions so he led the way toward the inn where the others were. Apparently, the recent hubbub over the ocean scared all the horses to the extent that the carriage services nearby were temporarily unavailable. “I’m not popular. I just made a show of myself by dueling Kantor in front of everybody.”

“Liar,” Mira teased. “You obviously know your way around dates. How many girls have you lured into your scheming arms!?”

“Are you talking about the extra dishes thing? I just knew you’d get lazy. So I made preparations.”

She poked his shoulder as they walked, an impish grin on her face. “That’s what I’m talking about. I’ve been out on a few sort-of dates and nobody’s done that before.”

“Don't be impressed by normal stuff. Pick better guys to date, instead.”

“Eh, I just kinda go with it if they ask too many times. Just to humor them, y’know? I get a free meal out of it too~! All I need to do is smile and thank them as I say goodbye and they’re all happy.”

Reivan grimaced. “Poor guys. I pity them...”

“Hey, they’re the ones who keep pestering me, alright?” Mira giggled, softly slapping the back of his head. “That was great though. I enjoyed it. I guess I’ll have to promote you to Meal Planner Minion now. Or the MP Minion for short.”

“That sounds a lot lower than vice-minion. I’d rather not get demoted. Again.” Reivan sighed. As they walked, he suddenly thought to ask something that had been gnawing at the back of his mind. “Hey, captain. You’re a girl, right?”

Mira stayed silent for a few heartbeats before she giggled, a distinct lack of amusement in the sound. “Can you please explain why you even need to ask that? Remember, I’m armed. With a wand.”

“Am I attractive?”

“You’re just going to ignor— Argh, never mind. Whatever.” Mira punched him on the arm, a little harder than usual. “Attractive... Why are you suddenly asking that? I’m gonna tell you right now, but my heart’s set on Prince Reivan until maybe next year. Or until he does something stupid and uncool.”

Reivan frowned. She still wasn’t stopping with that and he was starting to think she was actually gunning for him. The real him. “No, it’s just… Before, in my hometown, I didn’t get much attention from women… Just the one.”

“Oh. Okay…” Mira crossed her arms and nodded. “That changed?”

“Yes.”

“Like, by how much? Do girls just throw themselves at you or something?”

“Honestly…” Reivan licked his lips in contemplation. “There have been cases of that happening.”

Mira tapped her chin thoughtfully. “I don’t wanna sound like a bad person, but how ugly were they…?”

Reivan hesitated for a heartbeat before answering. “She was pretty.”

“Hoh.” Mira raised a brow at him. “Like Alini? Or Inaria...?”

“No, not that much. And definitely not at your level.”

“Wow. A sudden compliment. Maybe the world as we know it really will end today.”

Reivan frowned at her. “Take this more seriously.”

“Fine, fine…” Mira went quiet for a while, humming thoughtfully. “You’re fit, which is a huge plus, because the guys in my year all look like twigs. And I mean, your face is okay…? Not bad, but not great, either, y'know? You’re not short, but not too tall either.”

“Gee. It sounds like you’re trying really hard not to be mean.”

“I’m not!”

Reivan adjusted his glasses and scoffed. “Try harder then.”

Mira groaned before she ran up to block his way, forcing him to a stop. Then she eyed him up and down, her gaze stopping on his own. And it was at that moment that her eyes brightened.

“Ah! I finally got it.”

“Got what?”

“It’s your eyes.” Mira pointed at his face, the tip of her finger almost touching the tip of his nose. “It’s your eyes, Clover. Maybe that’s why. I don't know why I never noticed.”

“My eyes…?” Reivan tilted his head slightly, looking to the side where he could vaguely see himself reflected in what remained of a store’s glass window. All he saw were a pair of green eyes staring back from behind spectacles.

For all intents and purposes, he looked like Clover Salwyn. As he should. Because that was who he was impersonating right now.

“There's just…” Mira bit her lip and tried to find the words, turning around to continue walking. “I think there’s just something about your eyes. It’s piercing, you know? Like, you’re really intense sometimes. There’s this confidence, like nothing can get in your way. Actually, I think you’re really similar to Prince Reivan in that aspect. When I saw him, the way he looked at the world was different. Like he owned everything he beheld or something. Like he was the cock of the town and he knew it.”

Reivan pursed his lips. Somehow, he was starting to glimpse what she was talking about.

‘Is it because of [Supreme Insight]?’

That was the only explanation he could think of. But it could also be caused by the simple fact that, while he could act as Clover Salwyn as much as he wanted, the person inside was still Reivan Aizenwald — the second prince of Aizen. Valter had given the seal of approval for his disguise, but Reivan supposed he had accidentally bled a bit of himself into his Clover disguise.

Which was understandably not good at all. Especially since someone managed to link him to his actual identity directly. She got lucky, yes, but who's to say nobody else would see the connection?

‘I don’t know all that nonsense about owning everything I beheld though.’

He absolutely did not think that way, so she was completely off. Why would he want to own a country he didn’t like that much? Reivan would much rather keep living in the palace and cuddling with his future wives every night. Arkhan could suck it for all he cared. Honestly, how Mira described his real self made him sound like some arrogant prick and he didn’t like it. Like some two-bit villainous prince that would pester the main character of some trashy isekai novel.

Her mistaken impressions aside, Reivan had to be more careful. He didn’t know what to do though. Sunglasses, perhaps? Or should he start wearing a blindfold? That wouldn’t do. How could he see, then? Ordinary people couldn't just learn echolocation on command like blind monks in novels.

“Anyway, that’s what I think.” Mira shrugged. ”But maybe you should ask those girls what they find attractive about you if you’re so curious?”

“Right. I suppose you wouldn’t be the best person to ask since you’re not attracted to me, huh?”

Mira hummed, sending him an impish glance. “I wouldn’t say that.”

“... Huh?”

“Hah! Your face is killing me!” she laughed, causing him to grimace and search for a change in subject.

“Right. Why didn’t you summon Fawks in all of that?” Reivan finally got into the meat of his purpose today. He felt as if her guard was sufficiently low enough after a meal and casual conversation. “You seemed to have tried, at least.”

“Oh, curious?” Mira scratched her cheek. “It’s not that strange. Fawks was way too powerful for me to handle, but it still allowed me to catch it because it wanted to get out of the sanctuary.”

“It wanted to get out…?” Reivan echoed, suddenly finding something else that was somewhat similar to Dom.

“Uh-huh. That’s why it kind of just does whatever it wants… I suppose it’s time for a lesson. A bond doesn’t mean I can make it do what I want, Clover. Bonded spirit beasts help their contractors out not because they’re forced to, but because they want to. They like they’re contractors and want to do what they can to help out. That’s my relationship with Boop. But not so much with Fawks…”

“I see…” Reivan licked his lips in thought, realizing that the dynamics of his bond with Zouros were quite similar. To be honest, he never felt like he had control over the serpent. It simply did what he told it to because it wanted to.

At the same time, Reivan tried his best to get the giant serpent what it wanted, except for maybe eating an entire town. That definitely wasn’t something he could let it do, and it seemed Zouros understood that too since it was holding its own desires back.

“So what’s the point of keeping it around, then?” Reivan asked after some thought. “Do you like her? Fawks, I mean.”

“Eh… It’s complicated…” Mira scratched her head. “I want to like her too and I’m trying, but she doesn’t really let me do that… It’s actually kind of depressing. She comes out if I’m in danger though. Or if I tell her I won’t drink any potions if she doesn’t let me see her.”

‘Fawks sounds like a bitch. I’m glad Zouros isn’t like her.’

Reivan gained a newfound appreciation for his comrade. He supposed he had to give it a good rub once they got back. Zouros always liked those. “So I can’t see her?”

“Fawks?”

“Yes.”

Mira raised a brow and tilted her head. “Why would you wanna see her?”

“Why not?” Reivan shrugged. “I’ve seen all our squad’s spirit beasts but Fawks. Isn’t it normal to want to see everyone’s partners? What if I see her one day and get freaked out, thinking she's an enemy?”

“That’s a good point. Alright…”

Mira stopped to look around, grabbed his hand, and pulled him into an alley before taking out the potion she’d shown him earlier. “Wait a while, I’m blackmailing her to come out and show herself…”

After a few moments of seemingly nothing happening, fire erupted out of Mira’s skin and coalesced into the infantile form of a fox-like spirit beast with luscious red fur.

“There we go. You’re so much trouble sometimes…” Mira scolded it lovingly, giving the fox a pat on the head. It snarled at her but the way its bushy red tail wagged from side to side revealed its true feelings. “Say hello to my minion over there, Fawks. He wants to meet you so don't try to kill him.”

Fawks’s golden eyes darted toward him for only a moment before it snorted, turning its nose away.

‘So this is her…’

Wasting no time, Reivan used [Supreme Insight].

~^+— Unit's Statistics —+^~

Name: Fawks (True Name - Foxxy)

Species: Spirit Beast - Vulpine Embertail

Realm: Mortal

Age: 19

Sex: Female

Special Abilities [Spirit King Seed]

[Flame Domination]

Might: 323 Extra Skills Elemental Affinities: [Fire] [Spirit Bond: Mira] [Qi: Unleashed]

Favor: (Disdain) -30 / 100 Threat Level: Absolute

Reivan closed his eyes in resignation. With this, the chance of his suspicions being correct had gone up drastically: the Spirit Tower knew about spirit king seeds and was somehow making use of them. How, specifically, was yet to be confirmed. But the mere fact that the Tower had a relatively surefire way to produce Ascendants — even Transcendents — was bad enough for his spine to chill.

In any case, Reivan needed to deliver his findings to Aizen. Immediately, if he could afford it.