The next day I awoke to a scream coming from the room beside mine.
Isn't that Arthur's room?
Shit!
I scrambled awake and barged in the room, only to find Gramps holding his hand on Arthur's sternum.
"What happened?" I ask them.
"His mana core acted up again" Gramps responds, "Lets start the training, even if it is a bit early."
"Sure" I shrugged at him, before following him to the courtyard, Arthur trailing behind me.
Gramps sat down in lotus position before taking a long look at us.
"Up untill the both of you have been purifying your cores and usibg mana manipulation using your mana channels. While this method may be enough for normal mages, it is not enough for beast tamers. Beats tamers use a different method called assimilation."
...what?
He must've read my expression, or Arthur's who looked just as confused.
"Hahaha, you'll know soon enough. Assimilation is essentially integrating mana from your mana core to your bodies muscles and bones, thus the name assimilation, and once your body absorbs the mana from your new core you will be able to use whatever beast will you have. The only drawback to this is that your mana core wont develop during this process."
Eh, thats a small price to pay.
"Slowly release the mana from your core into your body and let your bones and muscles absorb it. This will take a lot of time and effort but as the process continues your mana core will get more accommodated to your body. There isn't much I can do for you two right now other than making sure that the mana is distributed evenly throughout your body and relieving you when your mana cores act up."
So we continued for days, this seems like it will take a lot of time. Like seriously this is much harder than forming a mana core. Not only is the mana moving in a completely different direction but I'll also have to infuse it directly to my bones and muscles.
Arthur decided not to leave the castle since either of our cores can act up anytime and I had to agree, going outside at this condition would only be harmful.
Gramps was a godsend, helping us relieve the pain whenever any of us spasms. Several weeks passed and the pains from my core became less frequent, in this time I got to know the princess more, turns out I now have to call her Tess. Either way I'll still call her princess just to annoy her.
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The next day we went touring the city of Zestier. Tessia wore a white sleeveless sundress with a similarly coloured cardigan, along with a pink hat on her head which decorated with a flower. Arthur wore the same outfit he wore the previous day while I wore a Black coat over a blue shirt and black pants.
The city didn't seem as mesmerizing as when I first saw it, I guess being in the palace for so long made me a used to all this.
As we were touring around the city an elven child bumped into Art, even though he steered out of his way.
"Well if it aren't the human brats that Elder Virion took under. Gross I've got human germs now" he says snidely while making a disgusted face.
Is this guy for real?
He then turned to Tessia with a smile and outstretched hand, "Allow me to escort you around princess, these human brats are under you."
"Let's go, Art, Fay, there's bug in that direction and I don't want to soil my shoes by accidentally stepping on it." She retorted coldly.
Since when did I give her permission to call me 'Fay'? Oh well I guess its only fair she gets to call me that since I now have to call her 'Tess'.
As we turned to leave we were interrupted again.
"Hold it brat I'm not done with you!" He shouted and proceeded to grab Arthur's shoulder.
"I heard you are pretty talented human mages. I am a genius myself and am already at the red stage. I can manipulate water and soon plants as well."
Kid, we're quadra elemental mages with very strong beast wills.
Arthur spoke up, his voice dripping with sarcasm," Oh my word, princess Tessia we're in the presence of a true genius here, I'm not worthy."
I snickered at this.
"I'll be sure to give you proper respect, Lord Genius of the Elves. So if you'll excuse us…" Arthur trailed off
As we were leaving a handkerchief flew past us and fell to the ground.
Looking back I see the elves face red with anger glaring at Arthur.
"How dare you initiate a duel with a disciple of Elder Virion! You may be of noble blood, Feyrith, but you should still know your place! Take it back" Tessia ordered with a glare.
"My apologies princess, but my father has taught me never to let my pride be stomped upon. So what will you do Arthur, accept the duel or retreat like a coward, know this your choice will reflect upon your mentor as well." The idiot said while drawing a wand.
"You want me to take care of this Art?" I whisper to my brother.
"No, I'll take care of this myself." He responds back.
"Alright."
We had attracted quite the crowd by now.
"Princess, please do us the honor of initiating the duel." He seems quite eager to get his ass whooped.
Tessia simply rolled her eyes and announced, "Let the duel, begin."
And so it began.
Arthur dashed towards him and took him out in one hit.
He probably shouldn't have done that judging by the looks we received from the audience.
Later Tess explained that duels contained some rules, one was that the challenger always made the first move, and the other was that it is supposed to be a demonstration of magic.
Once Virion found out whaf happened he laughed quite a bit saying that the duels were foolish and an inaccurate way to measure someone's magic.
We rarely went out after that, choosing to stay in the palace. But we did manage to send messages to Mom and Dad to let them know we were alive and missed them a lot.
And so, 3 years passed by.