When we arrive at the valley, it is still dark outside. I don't know if it's really midnight or it's just some sort of spell that protects the valley from the sun's light. I ask the Queen about it and she answers that it's the latter. Turns out her kind prefers the night over the day so she designs the barrier that way.

Speaking of the barrier, she teaches me that it's an example of ritual magic. She had drawn runes all around her hiding place, obscuring it from anyone outside unless she allows that person to come in like that villager. The rune works by casting the illusion that changes the landscape, making outsiders think that there's no valley nor cave. And like she says, it's useless against high-ranking magicians since they can tell easily that it's all an illusion, due to them being more "in tune" with magic. Being more in tune means you have higher sensitivity to anything magical, meaning they can easily tell the magic of the illusion. And once you know it's an illusion, dispelling it isn't hard at all.

"Now, let me demonstrate a little magic."

"Summoning: Blood-Red Griffin!" She claps her hand together as she declares her spell.

A magic circle appears on the ground in front of her. And before you can say "wow!", a beastly figure leaps out of it.

It is definitely, like the spell chant suggests, a griffin. And its feathers are blood-red, just like the spell chant says it would be.

It towers over both of us. It easily reaches around the size of an elephant, or even more.

The magic circle vanishes afterwards.

The creature roars loudly as if it announces its own entrance.

"Shh, be silent!" The Queen commands. "You don't need to roar! I can see clearly that you've come! Really, you're just one big attention-seeker, aren't you?"

The beast lowers its head, ashamed by the Queen's rebuke.

"Now, listen carefully. Tonight, we're going to take a little ride. But not just you and me. This guy right here will come along too."

Noticing my presence, the beast immediately inches closer towards me. Threatened by the beast's massive size, I take a couple of steps backwards. It then sniffs me like it is a dog or something.

"Hush, don't be so paranoid! He is my dear friend! He's not a dangerous person!"

Uh, I am not so sure about the "dear friend"  part but we're indeed allies, at least for now. So I stay put and let her settle everything out.

"Good boy! Good boy!" She strokes the are near its ears, calming it down and making it take a seat like a good dog on the ground.

"Now--" She looks towards me. "Let's go. We're riding this thing tonight."

She climbs upwards towards the beast's back. I cannot help but noticing how her butt wiggles tantalizingly while she does so.

"Oh my, getting turned on already? Was it my cute bum?" she says teasingly while she sits atop the beast.

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Yeah, there's a bulge on my pants. It's nowhere near my full boner but it's already visible.

...I really need some underwear.

Ignoring that little problem, I climb up the beast following the Queen. It's surprisingly easy with my strong muscles. I don't think it'd be that easy if I am still my old human self in the old world.

"Now, hug me tight. This guy flies quite fast and hard."

...Wait, hug?

"What's the matter? Embarrassed?" she asks playfully.

"W-well... I never hugged a girl before so I don't know where to start."

...Why did I say that?

"Ahahaha, it's easy! Just put your arms around my stomach!"

I do as she says after I move my sitting position at right behind her. I can feel the smoothness of her skin right away, since she isn't wearing anything to cover her stomach. I can also smell the enticing scent  coming from her hair and body, stimulating a certain part on my lower body once again.

Damn, is this how girls smell like or is it just her unique body scent?

"Hang tight now!"

Immediately after, the griffin runs forward at an alarmingly fast speed. I would've fallen off if not for the fact that I'm hugging the Demon Queen right now.

The beast then leaped into the air, flapping its majestic wings as it flies upwards.

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On the way, the Queen explains how summoning works. First of all, summoning only works towards your familiar, so you gotta make a pact with the beasts you want to summon first to make them yours. The pact depends on the individual beast itself so you have to learn what it wants.

"Any limits on how many beasts you can summon at once?" I ask.

"Theoretically, no," she answers, "But of course you're limited to how many beasts you made a pact with. Oh, and storing your beast to be summoned continuously takes mana from you, and the stronger the beasts the more it takes."

"Storing? I thought--"

"No, we don't teleport them straight from somewhere else. We store them first in what we call 'familiar space' and then we summon straight out of it."

"I see. So, I assume they won't consume any mana if they are being summoned since they exist in the real world?"

"Yes. But that doesn't mean that I cannot inject my mana into them if they need it in the middle of battle."

"How about the other way around? Absorbing their mana into your own?"

"That is also possible."

Interesting. I see one possible use for this familiar system that others might have not thought of.

I really should get that elf body so I can start using magic. I can't wait to try my idea out.