“Okay- now hold it steady-” I said while covering my eyes with my hand as the blistering heat from the Zath's fireball started to wash over my body.

As it turns out, Zath’s Pledge is not actually just a combat stick she can use to bash people, it also doubles as a wizard's staff because why not? I swear to Goddess if this girl gets the chance to get stronger things are going to be very interesting in the future.

And her spells aren't just limited to fire and water either, they're also capable of expanding to the sub-categories of the two elements.

-Ice? Check- she's done that earlier this morning. In fact, I think some of the icicle spears that she shot are still somewhere around here.

-Lava? Not really but she can create liquid fire that's close to napalm in composition, it also disappears unless it directly hits living targets.

-Mist? Eh… close but not yet.

-Heatwaves? There are some problems but Zath's probably gonna figure it out. Soon. Ish. Probably.

“Zath, focus-"

“I am. Neo. I am.” She said through gritted teeth, cutting me off as the fireball in front of her flares for a single second before stabilizing again. I stared at her work and the way she held the Technique in place, the exercise she's doing now is made by yours truly, around uh… 3-ish years into the start of my training.

And the premise of the exercise is simple: using Light Techniques, the caster must hold onto whatever it is they cast for as long as they can keep the spell together, doing so would make their finer control for Light better, and if they keep it up every day, they'll even increase their reservoir, and the increase will be small at first but do the exercise enough times and results are going to show.

I spent around two minutes under the painful heat before Zath finally let go and the miniature sun that she conjured disappeared from my view- “Good job!” I clapped, for someone who's only been practicing her Pledge for two days, she's already doing pretty well, “if you keep this up Zath, I might even allow you to train with me in my gravity well,”

A snort of amusement reverberated through the air and everyone turned to the massive Dragon lazily lying on the ground, sunbathing and heating herself up without a care in the world, she opened one eye and her gaze met mine, ‘You can't possibly be serious?’

“What? It's fine!” I waved Fafnir's concerns off, “Just because I'm currently using military grade stuff doesn't mean that Zath can't do it,”

‘She'd die,’ said Fafnir bluntly, voice serious and dry as the desert sand, ‘and tell me you're joking or else I won't know what to think.’

“... I was partially joking,” I tried, I failed, Fafnir snorted and closed her eyes again, whatever- “but I'm also a tiny bit serious, if Zath pushes herself, she can actually walk under the effects of heavy gravity,”

“You mean your level of heavy gravity right?” I nodded at Zath and she stared at me flatly, “no.” She said with a tone so final, it turned into a finish line for that particular topic, my maid ignored my furrowed eyebrows and turned to my sister, “moving on, how long?”

“3 minutes and 41 seconds,” Amber said from our right and I cheered.

“Yayy~~” I smirked, “now all you need to do is start your control training and you'd have a high chance of passing the entrance exam,” Zath eyed me and I returned her worried look before clasping her hands, “you're gonna be fine, Zath. Okay? Trust me on that.”

She nodded resolutely, “I will,”

I smiled and held back a shudder, Goddess, this is such a heavy promise that I don't even know if I can keep it. But I might as well try-

The next two hours went by in a blink but I was sure that it was very slow for Zath, but she managed to increase her record of holding her fireball spell together second by second, I didn't let her stop and rest for even a tiny bit, pushing her limits and making her cast the same spell and hold it over and over again until her reservoir was exhausted.

In the end, her final recond was- “4 minutes and 33 seconds,” Amber clapped, “rejoice!”

“Yayyyyyy,” Zath cheered weakly but her smile was genuine and with a sigh, she fell down on the ground and just lay there, staring at the sky with a small yet content smile.

“Alright, you can take a break,” I left my own meditative position to look around for anyone to bring us food but it seems that I didn't need to because Amber had it covered-

“I already told Xeci that we needed food, rest assured,” she smiled at me, "your second breakfast is about to arrive,”

I nodded in appreciation, “Zath's the one who's gonna eat most of it though,” I said with a shrug, “since she's the one who's gonna push herself till she collapses,” I made eye contact with my friend, “and she’s gonna need all the energy she could get,”

In response, my maid groaned and I don't know if it was because she wanted to cry or if she wanted to acknowledge my words.

A little while after that and the training instructor came, and she was this tall, black-skinned, broad shouldered behemoth that stood 3 inches taller than me, not a big margin all things considered but still enough for her to stare me down, and stare me down she did, all the while she had a smirk on her lips while doing so.

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My old instructor grinned, “Neophyte, I've heard the rumors,” I held back a groan, not her too. “And I want to see if your lover is actually good enough to stand right next to you against the Demons, so you better expect me to train her hard,”

Yeah right, that's the reason, not because you're a sadist who wants people to suffer through what you call “training”.

I raised a finger to argue my point against me and Zath being lovers but it's probably pointless isn't it?

- But an attempt didn't sound so bad so… “I'm not gonna deny nor confirm anything because you'd just twist my words or whatever,” seriously, for someone so physical, she can be a pretty attentive conversationalist, “but I just want you to know that I will deny it if it's possible,”

Quoketh just glossed over everything I said and acted like nothing entered her ears as she continued talking, “I've also heard that you want to keep it secret for some reason.” Wait what? Is that why no one believes me? As if reading my mind, Quoketh shrugged and said, “honestly I don't really care so I don't get why you want to hide it, it's fine at the end of the day, it's not like anyone can force you who to marry, with your strength and all,”

A proud smile grew on my face at her words, “damn right.”

Soon, a small table of meat got sent to us and Zath started eating and as we waited for her to finish, Quoketh's daughter and her fiancee/husband came over because the instructor wanted Zath and me to have “sparring partners” which yeah, fair, for Zath at least but for me? I'm gonna beat both Naviri and her husband, Satti, till they're groaning on the ground.

When they arrived, the two of them eyed the massive dragon sleeping to our right with caution and interest before walking over to me, Naviri was exactly as I remembered her- with a skin tone that's slightly lighter than her mother's, a head of dreadlocks, and a body that matches mine in muscle.

Her husband, meanwhile, is bulkier than the two of us, with bulging muscles fit for heavy weight lifting underneath his dark skin, black eyes, and a head of curly hair that for some reason- according to him, - never gets straightened no matter how much it gets brushed.

The two of them greeted me and the first to speak is Naviri, “Neophyte,” she shook her head in exasperation before pointing at Fafnir, “I thought those were just rumors,”

“Whattttt?” I responded with a joking tone, “you didn't see me fly her across Everlast last week?”

Naviri's face turned serious, “No.”

She then giggled and waved me off, “kidding- yeah I saw, thought we were getting attacked and mom even called her Pledge before running around like a headless chicken, yelling ‘BACK DOWN AND RETREAT!’ to everyone else,” we both giggled while instructor Quoketh shot us a half-assed glare.

“No one wondered about Everlast's defenses? About why they aren't activating?” I asked with a smirk. The alarms are a great way to tell if the city is really being attacked or not, and ingame, it’s an event signifier that makes you go deaf.

Naviri shook her head, “nahhhh, girl- because let's be honest here, Dragons with the same power as… Fafnir? Right?” I nodded, she nodded back, “right, Fafnir- Dragons like her can survive and disable the defenses of this city, Goddess knows it already happened before,”

If I remember correctly, that Dragon belonged to one of the incarnations of the Demon Lord, the guy wasn’t really mentioned back in Everlast- the game, - but here, he’s pretty well known for breaching the defenses of the city and staging an attack and Fafnir should be as strong as his Dragon- Hm- probably not anymore because she made a Pact with me which is bad- I sighed, no point in worrying about it-

I nodded at Naviri’s words, “I remember someone talking about it, but I wasn’t even born before that so…”

“That was a miserable time,” Instructor Quoketh chimed.

Naviri broke the silence that followed by saying what most of my acquaintances have been throwing at my face whenever they see me again, “so, girls huh?” She giggled and it took all of my will not to facepalm, “I honestly thought you were just focused on fighting Demons but I guess this could work as well!”

Even with her playful demeanor, her smile was genuine and she walked forward and hugged me, “congratulations Neophyte,” I frowned, why was she saying it like it was already concrete? What the fuck? I'm not into girls damnit! But I couldn't say that right now so I just waited until Naviri broke the hug and smiled up at me, “I'm happy for you and hey! If you want to exchange love stories, I'm always here,” she winked.

“Right…” I rubbed the back of my neck in discomfort, damnit, how can I deny someone like her? It feels like I'll just sour her genuine feelings if I do so you know what? I'll wait until she realizes how wrong she is so that I don't feel guilty.

I smiled, “thanks, Navs,”

She grinned, “don't mind it, what are friends for?”

Introductions now done, the two of us chatted and we started walking, our conversation only really stopped when we reached Zath’s table, who was eating the meat with careful yet quick movements.

Naviri smiled at her, “hello,”

Zath swallowed her food and narrowed her eyes, “we've met before,”

Naviri nodded in confirmation, “nice to see you again, Zathania,” she reached out a hand, Zath took it and… that was it, the ice was broken and Naviri was back to being her usual self, the girl immediately sat right next to Zath and started animatedly talking, “so I've heard that your lovers with my friend over there,” she pointed at me, “and… I don't want to sound like I'm her Dad but I'm also her friend so… shovel talk.”

“Shovel talk.” Zath nodded, “but before that, I just want to say that I'm not her lover.”

"Yes, yes, of course,” Naviri all but dismissed Zath's denial, “now, if you break my friend's heart, you know what's gonna happen to you right?” Zath shook her head, “no? Then let me tell you-”

And that was how I listened to Naviri talk about how she will chase my maid till the ends of the world, and that nothing will save Zath from certain doom under her hands and when Naviri does find her, she’s gonna slice Zath apart so many times she will no longer be recognizable and after that, she added that she'll feed Zath's remains to the pigs and scoop up their shi-

“Okay, can we stop?” I said, “I'm eating here,”

"So am I,” Zath chorused.

Naviri giggled, “sorry, sorry- it was just too fun not to say it you know?” The girl- who I’m surprised doesn’t love girls, - shrugged, “and now that I'm done saying it-” she slid a plate of steak over to herself and started eating, “- I'm gonna eat now as well! Thanks for having me, Neo, Zath.”

“You were just waiting for yourself to finish talking? About that? What about us?!” I said in exasperated hurt and frowned when she shrugged, “harsh.”

In response, my friend just shrugged again.

So Zath eventually finished eating, and when she did, we did nothing but make small talks and the like before she got up to continue her physical training and when all was said and done, Naviri, her husband, me, and Zath stood up from our chairs under the instructions of Quoketh and as we neared her, I noticed a few… ugh, damn it, “I have to put on weights?”

“Yes, because it'd be unfair otherwise,” the instructor said.

“I thought this week is supposed to be my break week!” I loudly protested to which the instructor just smiled ominously in response, I sighed, “fine,”

Reluctantly, I put on the weights and that was when the exercise started, with Naviri, Satti, and Zath tailing behind me, we ran laps across the entire backyard of the castle and you know what? I can't believe I'm saying this but it's way too easy! Did I really struggle through this entire thing when I was a child?

After the what..? 5 mile run? We four stopped running and without even taking a break, we started stretching before immediately doing sit ups, push ups, and whatever else that Quoketh could think of- and I swear she was making things up along the way.

What even is grip strength testing? Making us hang on the bars like that? What the fuck?

When all was said and done, we stopped and Zathania immediately collapsed, our instructor walked over to her and gave her a bottle of fruit shake which yeah, she definitely needs at this exact moment. Zath took it without complaint before sitting up and gulping it down in slow swallows.

“You just need to build your stamina kid,” Quoketh said as she walked away from Zath, “you can start worrying about your muscles when you go to the Academy like everyone else- well,” she stared at me, her daughter, and her son-in-law, “most of everyone else,”

I grinned, which immediately fell when I saw her look, “now, I wanted to let you three rest but since one of you is so eager-” damn it, me! “then how about you all pass the time with a spar?”

“Can Fafnir take my place?” I said sheepishly.

‘No.’

“No.”

Quoketh and her newly earned ally- the traitor, - said at the same time.