Chapter 36 - The Fire Phoenix and the Thunder General

  "e on, stop deying me!"

  'Nahh!' pined Cyl as I tried t her out of bed.

  "You agreed to this and promised you'd behave!"

  I struggled to pull the fged phoenix from my bed, but she was grumpy and far to for my eight-year-old arms.

  "Please, Cyl. I don't want to get scolded by my mom. Remember how scary she gets? You're lucky she spoils you."

  'Nahhh!'

  Cyl stood up, pullih her paws and tossing me bato the bed.

  "Let go, idiot! You're squashing me."

  The phoenix grabbed me and pinned me in a tight hug with her paws.

  'Nah,' she said in her nguage, rubbing her head against mine.

  How is she s when she's a kid like me? Damn racial advantages...

  Cyl tinued huggirapping me in her embrace. In my three years living with Cyl, I learhat whes gy like this, I have to let her get her fill of hugs before she'll let me go.

  "I hope when you grow up a huge, you don't give me these hugs anymore, or I'm doomed..."

  The phoenix ignored me, tinuing to hug me tightly.

  I hope she doesn't see me as one of her chicks...

  If I have another scary mom to se, my ears won't survive the tugging.

  "Young master, I'm ing in," Martha's voice called out as she opehe door.

  Martha ehe room and took in the se.

  "I see Cyl's still at it. I'll leave your breakfast oable, good luck."

  "Wait, Martha! Save me, I'm trapped here!"

  The maid chuckled.

  "No dy likes having her sleep interrupted," she said, closing the door.

  'Nah!' Cyl agreed with Martha as she shut the door.

  I sighed.

  "How long will these hugs st?"

  The phoenix rolled her eyes at my question.

  "I saw that. You know you're annoying me."

  She licked my fad finally released me.

  "Gross, now my face is covered in drool. Good thing I was going to take a bath anyway."

  The fged phoenix leaped off the bed, stretg on the floor like a cat. She even wagged her tail before spreading her wings and shaking herself off.

  Everyone in the mansion had gotteo her, and no one found it strange anymore that she had ged shape. The residents were already aced to dealing with a magical animal because of ellian, but my aunt had asked that no one speak about Cyl.

  Everyone agreed with my aunt, and it was normal sino one revealed elliaeo outsiders either. My aunt said not even the kingdom knew we had a 'domesticated' Moon Panther. Although ellian didn't obey anyone, he was theoretically 'domesticated' because he accepted living in our home and didn't kill us, given that these panthers kill anyone. Moon Panthers are known as assassins. Which is ironic because everyone living in Evenhart Mansion was also an assassin.

  I would also be trained i of Assassination. Even though the 'Era of Assassins' had given way to the 'Era of Diplomacy,' my family maintaihe tradition. I would be trained once I had better trol of my magice we awakened early. Even Chloe would be traihough her focus would be more on sword bat than assassination. As a future Duchess, she o be profit in bat, especially since we were to attend an Academy that ractically military. We couldn't afford to be weak just because we were high-ranking nobles.

  I learhat at the Magic Academy, they would teaagid sword fighting. It seems that mages bine sword battles and magice mana isn't infinite and has its vulnerabilities. If a warriot close to a mage, the mage would be vulnerable without mana. Therefore, mages were taught to use ons from a young age. In a way, mages are warriors who use magic. Although some mages are more ined towards long-distance spells and don't train mu close bat, our mothers didn't want to expiypes of mages to us, fearing it would interfere with the teacher's lessons.

  I had to take a bath and put on a 'cute outfit' my mom had Martha bring. I shared my breakfast with the phoenix. Even though she ate a huge pieeat once a week, she still ate small pieces during meals with me, so they always included a small steak for me to give her.

  "No more deys, we o go. I have to be ready to meet my teacher," I said to her.

  Cyl decided to listen this time, and after we ate, she followed me out of the room. I poio the door, and a blue spark shot from my finger, hitting the doorknob, which closed the door by itself.

  I let out a small ugh.

  "Eleagism… this is great!" I said, looking at my hands.

  Unfortunately, this only worked oals that I had to touch to leave my mana, and it was a slow process.

  I had been practig this eleagism trick for the past 15 days, and all I managed was to close the door. Worse still, after it happened, I couldn't trol the doorknob anymore as my mana had drained from it. I tried to imitate what I did with Aura to create an invisible prote on my ons. The advantage was that I could pce my mana in objects, but it was borious and time-ing. I couldn't store muergy in the object, or it would… explode. So, besides ing a lot of mana, it wasn't worth it.

  The time and mana spent only gave me a simple movement with magism, and then my mana in the object disappeared.

  "A shame, but there's still room for improvement."

  I had only awakened my Mana Gem a little over a month ago, but I had beely training with thunder and was getting good at it… I don't want t, but if I dedicate myself, I could be deadly with this magic.

  Cyl and I walked side by side. She had also improved during this time and had better trol of her powers. For now, I noticed she had lost the ability to cover her entire body in fmes, but I suspected that was because all her energy was being used to help her grow.

  Once, I injured myself while pying with a sharp knife during a fight with Sifu… the monk made me fight him while he held a sword, and I had a little knife. I did well, and he was impressed, but I ended up scratg my hand.

  My mom scolded me when she saw I was hurt… luckily, Cyl saved me by lig the wound and healing it instantly. When my mom saw that, she started spoiling Cyl.

  Lucky phoenix! She eves gifts!

  As soon as my mother saw that Cyl genuinely cared about me and would be by my side to prevent me from getting hurt, she grew even fonder of the phoenix. She and my aunt remodeled the ke room, installing a giant crystal light sphere at the top and adapting structures for Cyl to py on. What used to be a dimly lit room now had a massive light sphere that made it feel like daytime, with various ptforms for Cyl to jump and fly around. They also pced a rge pieeat there once a week for Cyl to eat.

  uardian, ellian, didn't get too close to Cyl. We feared there might be some territorial dispute, even though ellian was intelligent; he was still an animal. Luckily, the Moon Panther uood the situation a us in peace, though I suspected he was afraid of her.

  “Nahh!” said Cyl, looking at the stairs leading to her 'den.'

  “It’s just temporary, and I’ll fetch you every night to sleep in my room.”

  If I don’t fet…

  She nodded in agreement.

  Looking at the dark staircase, I raised my hand, making my lightning glow to illumihe path as I walked.

  “Who said the thunder element isn’t useful?” I said to her.

  Cyl moved, and her head caught fire, illuminating the area even more.

  “That wasn’t necessary…”