Yuna began explaining to Lucia the details of the pact. After the explanation, Lucia was immediately enamored by the sudden gains that she got from forming a pact with the Oriental Dragon.
"That's amazing! I can use all your skills and spells then?" Lucia exclaimed excitedly.
"...that's the gist of it." Yuna replied, a little out of breath.
"I'd like to test them, but we should go back and get you some clothes first~"
"..."
"Oh yeah! The mist-like teleportation magic, can I use that too?!"
"It's called Misty Gate and yes, you can use it, but the mana needed is a little on the steep side."
Yuna began explaining the method to activate the Mist Gate and Lucia quickly understood. It was similar to the Headmaster's Space Gate.
"So all I have to do is visualize the place I want to go to right?"
"Yes, it has to be a clear and precise image! If it's off by even a little bit, then the gate won't open at the exact spot that you want, but somewhere near the area you visualized or sometimes it won't activate at all! In worst case scenarios the gate might just teleport you to somewhere else entirely. So remember! Clear image!"
"Okay!"
Lucia closed her eyes and began picturing her dorm. Once she got a good visual she immediately began circulating her mana. Unlike Yuna who only needed to activate it on a whim, Lucia had to chant an incantation to activate the Misty Gate. Once she finished with the chant, mist began to gather around her body and form a 'door' in front of her. Once the Misty Gate took shape, Lucia opened her eyes and smiled in satisfaction. She quickly jumped right into the gate.
"W-Wait! Oh... this girl!" Yuna was exasperated by her reckless behavior. Lucia didn't even check to make sure that the coordinates were correct before jumping into the gate. Yuna sighed and followed after her.
When she exited the gate, Yuna found herself inside a cozy living room. There were neat decorations in the room. She looked around and found Lucia taking off her cloak in the middle of the room.
"...where is this?"
"This is my dorm! I'm a student in the academy."
"Okay..."
Lucia then went into her room and left Yuna and Silver alone in the living room.
"...hey, fenrir... you got a name?" Yuna asked the pet form Silver.
Silver nodded his head and barked, "Woof!"
"...Silver, huh? What're you doing with that foxkin girl?"
"Woof! Woof, woof!"
"She's the mistress? Wait, you mean she's not your owner?"
"Woof!" Silver replied as he bobbed his head up and down.
"Oh... so where is your owner?"
"Woof!"
"Out? And he left you here?"
"Woof!"
"...so you're here to protect your mistress... well, she won't be needing you anymore since I'm here now."
"RAWR!"
"Hmph."
When the two finished their exchange in a huff, Lucia exited the room with a black cloth in her arms. She then went up to Yuna and handed the large black cloth to her.
"Here Yuna, use this for now. It'd be really awkward if you went out in those tight fitting clothes."
"...yes."
Yuna took the black cloth and draped it over her body. The black cloth was actually the cloak that Aurellia had given to her earlier. She had modified it a bit so that it could at least cover Yuna to some degree. After that, Lucia took a look outside and saw that it was getting dark.
"We should hurry! The store might close any minute if we take too long!"
Lucia grabbed Silver and then took Yuna's hand and quickly dashed out of her dorm. She made her way out of the dorm complex, dashing straight for the academy district's shopping area. Along the way, she found people pointing at her and exclaiming. Some even tried to block her path while telling her to stop, but Lucia just pushed them away using her steam magic and her newly acquired 'mist' magic.
Yuna the Oriental Dragon didn't actually specialize in any of the 7 major elements. As a dragon she had her own unique draconic magic, but she did lean towards the water and wind element to some degree. The mist magic that she's shown Lucia was a combination between the water, wind, and her unique draconic elements.
With their pact, Lucia was also able to use this draconic element of hers. She didn't really know the underlying principle or traits that endowed this draconic element, but in time she would explore and make this element hers.
Now, with the addition of the unique draconic element, she could now use fire, water, and wind elemental magic. Wind was an elemental that she had little affinity with before, but after ingesting Yuna's blood and forming a pact with her, she felt strangely in harmony with the wind element now. This was something she greatly welcomed, since her goal from the start was to master all 7 major elements!
A while later, the two quickly arrived at the clothing store that Lucia wanted to go to. It was a little empty since the store was about to close, but when the staff saw the two girls walk in and noticed that one of them was a regular, they warmly received them.
Lucia left the choices to Yuna since she didn't have any sense of fashion after being heavily influenced by Cecil and only chose clothing based on their practicality in battle and training. She also didn't know what type of clothes Yuna liked, so she left the decision to the dragon girl's own discretion, telling her not to worry about the price since she was still pretty rich despite spending so much money earlier at the auction. In her bank card, there was still 2 million gold credits in it which was definitely not a small amount.
Yuna quickly asked for some recommendations and the staff helped her pick out some clothes. Once she saw them, she didn't think twice and just asked to pay for them. After taking a couple of sets, they went to look for some lingerie. This time Yuna personally picked them.
After she was satisfied, they paid for the clothing and walked out of the store. Lucia had kept all the clothing into her black ring while Yuna had put on one of the sets of clothes that she liked. When they arrived outside, a large crowd greeted them.
"...?" Lucia looked around a little puzzled and Yuna did the same. The dragon girl leaned down towards her master and whispered, "Weren't these the guys that you pushed away earlier?"
"...Oh? Yeah, you're right!" Lucia then turned towards the crowd of people and asked with a smirk, "What? You wanna fight?"
"!"
"..."
"N-No! Nononono!"
Many in the crowd immediately became flustered while shaking their heads. A small boy came forward and saluted while shouting.
"Our faction leader requested us to look for you! Can you please wait as we inform her?!"
"Leader?"
"Yes! We're from the Royal Fox Faction!"
"Oh! Big sis Aurel?"
"B-Big S-Sis?" The little boy stumbled at her words, but then he regained his composure. "Yes! Leader Aurellia asked us to look for you! So can you please wait here?!"
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
Lucia remembered that she accidentally ditched Aurel back at the auction house. Yuna had abruptly taken her away, so she didn't have the time to inform her. She then walked to the side where a nervous food stall owner was selling some meat patties and asked, "Hey, mister! Can I have 5 please?"
"Eh? Uh...sure...here you go young miss!" the stall owner quickly wrapped the patties in a bag and handed it to Lucia. The girl paid for the food then walked to a bench just next to the stall and began eating quietly. She beckoned for Yuna to come sit beside her and handed her some as well.
"..."
"..."
"..."
The crowd in front of them became a little confused and looked at each other in silence. The small child who first saluted to Lucia quickly got the hint and said to his faction members,
"Hey, one of you, go and inform the leader..."
"Already did, boss."
"...okay...everyone else. You're dismissed. I won't forget to mention you all later."
The crowd immediately dispersed, leaving only the small boy together with a handful of people staying behind. Lucia saw this and shrugged. She didn't mind them and continued eating her meat patty. Not long after, a flustered Aurellia appeared running down the road towards them. She had a very worried look on her face as she quickly ran towards Lucia, ignoring her subordinates who greeted her, and began inspecting the girl for any injuries and heaved a sigh of relief seeing that she was really okay.
"Lucia! How come disappeared like that?!"
"Oh... uhm... gulp. The dragon brought me away with its magic! Well, I'm fine now so it's alright!"
"Oh... so, where's the sea serpent?"
When the words sea serpent came out of Aurellia's mouth, Yuna immediately frowned and spoke up,
"I'm not some low grade sea serpent!"
"Eh?"
Aurellia finally noticed the beautiful young lady next to Lucia who was also in the midst of eating a meat patty.
"Pardon?"
"I said I'm no sea serpent. Those worms aren't even fit for comparison! So it'd be tactful of you to call me a dragon instead of some serpent."
"???"
"Ah, big sis, this is nom nom gulp... Yuna! She's actually that dragon that I bid for earlier!"
"Huh??!"
"Nice to meet you, girly, I'm Yuna. Just like Lucia said I'm that dragon you saw earlier at the...auction."
Near the end of her sentence Yuna began gritting her teeth in chagrin.
"Uh? Oh... he-hello... I'm Aurellia...ah?"
While Aurellia was standing there in confusion, Lucia and Yuna continued eating their meat patties happily. Seeing the two eating so happily, Aurellia released a sigh and went to order some too, she then sat next to Lucia and began eating as well.
She called out to her subordinates and told them to take some as well, saying that she would pay for them and reward them later for fulfilling her urgent request. The handful of people cheered and they walked to the stall owner and took some patties. While everyone was eating, Lucia and Aurellia began talking about random topics. Aurellia was honestly too tired to ask any more questions about Yuna. As they were eating, the student council president suddenly appeared in front of them, seemingly out of nowhere.
"Well, well... what's this?"
"Hm?"
"?"
"...what do you want, Zephyr?" Aurellia tiredly spat.
"Hmph. I thought it was weird that you withdrew from the confrontation last time... it seems that she's already joined your faction, huh?" Zephyr said derisively.
It was a very tiring day for her, so Aurellia kept her reply short and countered with a single word, "Wrong."
"Oh? So why is she not out doing her trial quest when her friends are currently doing theirs?"
"I'm done with mine~" Lucia said as she stood up. She had finished her patty and waved at Aurellia, completely ignoring the student council president.
"Big sis Aurel, I'll be going home now~ take care!" Lucia said and cast a Misty Gate to her dorm.
Once the gate fully formed, she jumped through it and disappeared. Yuna stood up and nodded at Aurellia before she too walked into the gate, following after her master. The two faction leaders were amazed seeing the Gate because it looked quite similar to the Headmaster's Space Gate, except that this one was formed from mist.
"What the?!"
"Lucia?!"
The two exclaimed, but then the Misty Gate began to slowly dissipate. The two could only stand stock still in astonishment. Aurellia's subordinates were also staring incredulously at the space where the two girls had just disappeared from.
"Just when did she learn the Headmaster's spell?!" Zephyr exclaimed, a clearly disgruntled expression was present on his face. He clicked his tongue, eyed Aurellia and turned away on his heels.
"..."
Aurellia just stood there for a while before she regained her bearings. She let out a tired sigh and said to the small boy Quri'el, "Quri, tell everyone the mission's been completed and award every participant their due rewards. I'll be going back to my dorm now."
"...alright, big sis," Quri'el responded loudly with a salute.
******
Later that night at an area far away from the capital city, a silhouette was flickering down the moonlit road at an extremely fast speed. The area it passed by would be buffeted by a brief wind storm that luckily didn't affect anybody because it was already close to midnight and no one was currently traveling on the road since most travellers right about now would either be camping somewhere close by or resting at a town or city's inn.
"Alright, I'll be able to make it by tomorrow afternoon!" The person who was traveling at such blinding speeds was Cecil. Although, Lucia kept on warning him to keep his mana in check, Cecil was currenlty using Mana Burst in order to maintain his current speed and he had been doing that for a few hours already.
Actually, he had kept the technique active from the time he had departed from the capital city up until now without rest. There were no signs of exhaustion on his face and Cecil felt it himself, his mana was still rather abundant and there was no worry of it falling to the red levels any time soon. Thanks to his previous breakthrough, his mana levels had actually soared by quite the amount, so at the moment, he was trying to test what his current limit was.
It was quite a reckless thing to do considering that he was alone at the moment, but it was precisely because he was alone that he could actually do this. If Lucia was around, she would have undoubtedly berated him and stopped him from doing such a reckless thing.
"I can't believe my mana levels have improved so much! Ahahahaha!!" Cecil laughed happily. He kept flickering down the road at high speeds, aiming to reach his destination by tomorrow even though it was actually pretty far away and would normally take a few days to reach it by wagon.