Now that Freya was pulled out of her slump they started to talk about how they would create her faction. The naive Freya was still there, reduced, but still present. Luckily, Lucas pointed out when she was being naive in a helpful way, even guiding her to think a lot more politically.
"Think again, who supported you from the very beginning?"
"I have a few counts and tons of barons, but their power doesn't resemble much."
"That doesn't matter, a mountain is made out of millions of smaller rocks, your faction must tower above that mountain. Get in touch with everyone that you know is trustworthy, no matter their position. But make sure that you can trust them with your secret. Look for all the people that are against your siblings, even if you don't know them that well."
They walked and talked towards the closest city.
"All right I know of a few people that I can contact, but what do I even say?"
"Aren't you a princess, a born ruler? I think you know, you just need some time to put it into words, that's all."
"But, ugh, can you give me a hint at least,"
"Try to never reveal your identity, but play it off as someone else. That way you have a slight cover and escape if necessary. Bring something only the princess has or knows as proof. The rest is based on your own philosophy and ideals of a ruler, I can't help you there."
"No, but that's enough, thank you. When I become the queen I'll gladly award you a position of court mage."
"I'll look forward to that."
'Really?'
'Hmm? Oh, no, absolutely not, this country is going to be at war with the Holy Kingdom if they keep this up, but there's nothing wrong with motivating someone else.'
'Even if that leads to their doom?'
They still had a while to go before reaching the city, luckily, now that Freya was awakened, she could use muscle strengthening to increase their speed. With a few attempts and instructions from Lucas, they shortened the distance of a few weeks of walking in a few days.
They kept talking about all kinds of topics and political endeavors she wanted to do. At a certain point, Lucas could see a city in the far distance but decided to take a break.
"Hey Freya, we're almost at the city."
"Wow, you're right, I can already see it from here."
"After all that time, we finally reached this place, Avesta, do you remember when we first met each other? That was already more than a month ago."
"Yeah," she looked back at the place they came from, remembering her childish behavior and actions did embarrass her, but Lucas told her that merely made her more human. "Oh that's right, I haven't fulfilled my part of the deal yet."
"Ah that's right, I almost forgot.", Lucas showed a genuine smile and acted as if he had forgotten about their deal. 'You're terrible at acting.'
'That's why I'm practicing.'
"I know I promised a bountiful award, but I..I euh can't give you that since I don't really have anything very precious."
'You've got to be kidding me.', Lucas barely held his facade up, his mind quickly filled with images of her death. Brushing part of his mind aside, he tried to calm down and diffuse the situation.
"That's no problem Freya, these things happen."
"B-But I'll give you a fitting reward once I build my faction!"
'Great so that will never happen huh, god dammit!'
'Shut up for a second, hope isn't lost, we were already planning on bringing her to a position of considerable power, this just delays our reward, not dismissed.'
"Then I'll gladly wait until you reach that position.", but before he could even finish speaking, Freya pulled something from her ring and shoved it into Lucas' hands.
"There, the payment for enrolling into the academy, it's not a lot, but I promise a lot more will come.", what she handed Lucas was a small crystal in the shape of a rhombus. It felt cool to the touch and Lucas could sense a large amount of magicules in the crystal.
'Since Freya said that this is payment I guess this is the currency used by sorcerers.'
'Great, so now we only have the equivalent of a single coin? What good is that going to do us?'
'It'll be enough to enter the academy, then we'll search for other sources of income. If we're truly desperate we can cash in our favor with the princess.'
'Yeah, if, and I'm seriously putting some weight on that IF there, she has gathered her allies and built her faction.'
'Which we can help her in when necessary, though I don't think we'll see her for quite some time now.'
"Great, thank you Freya!", the princess was entranced by Lucas' genuine smile of happiness. She couldn't get enough of it, her cheeks started to turn a bit red. 'I can do better!'
"A-and I'm not done, I'll tell you how my gift works!"
Freya had an innate gift to tell the power levels of anything as long as she focussed on them. This gave away Lucas' power when they met in the tavern in Granod. Just from a single instance, she found out Lucas' strength even if he was hiding his aura as best as he possibly could. If Lucas could master her gift he could immediately tell who he had to be careful of.
"Now you have my interest, I do wonder. How did you scope out my strength without being awakened or having any access to magic?"
Lucas was genuinely curious about how her gift worked, not only because he wanted to use it himself, but more so to know how these gifts worked in the first place. If there are others out there with an innate gift to know someone's weakness, wouldn't he be screwed? Figuring out how something works is the first step to dismantling it.
"You're right, but also wrong. You're right in the sense that I couldn't use magic at all, I wasn't awakened and my core was still dead. But you're wrong because of how you view magic."
Now it was Lucas' turn to be confused and filled with questions.
'Doesn't all magic stem from the core? What is she talking about?'
'She may have a point though, remember, emotions can strengthen or weaken magic at times, perhaps there is a certain state where you can use magic unconsciously.'
Freya felt proud of her gift and the fact that Lucas was confused for once. Throughout their entire journey, it felt as if Lucas had everything under control. He was a bastion in a storm, but now to see this side of him filled her with a kind of happiness.
"Not all magic is created by runes, merely thinking hard enough about a certain element can even create tiny spells. My gift works in a similar manner, it is Unique Magic, as only I can use it. By focusing on where a core should be located, I can tell how much power is inside of it, but I need to do that consistently and really focus on it. For example, if I did that with yours now...What!?"
Her face contracted as she looked at the power levels of Lucas' core. They were way above what a normal Rank 1 was supposed to have. It looked dangerous, a lot more than in the beginning. She never checked it again as she assumed Lucas to be a normal mage, but that was thrown out the window.
Even Lucas was getting antsy at how Freya was acting, part of him decided it would be best if she was dead, while the other opted for her survival for now.
"What's wrong? Is there something wrong with my core?"
"What? Oh no, absolutely not, it's just...your core is strange, it looks very strong but also hollow, I can't tell if you're a lot stronger than a normal Rank 1 mage or if your core is just putting up a front. There's no weight to it if I can explain it like that."
'Great, so our core is somehow empty? And we can't use that magic since it's unique to her. What a waste of time this was.'
'Shut up, we can figure something out to reach the same kind of scouting abilities that she has later. I'm more worried about the fact that she finds our core hollow. We clearly have a core filled with magicules, how could it be empty, our strength feels real, even the experiments support that.'
'Who knows, perhaps it's something she can't properly sense so there's this blank space in her vision, causing that feeling.'
'That would make sense, I guess, but still...'
"Well, being stronger is always good, isn't it? Especially as the very first member of your faction, it would only make sense that I'm special."
They laughed it off and finally set forth to the city of Avesta