The "shinigami" continued to sit before us during the lessons. She was a diligent student; I witnessed how she neatly transcribed lectures in her notebook. However, Rizel didn't talk to anyone, and her classmates kept their distance from her.
Rumors began to circulate that she was a ghost, or perhaps a centenarian hag hiding under her hood, or maybe a skeleton. The boldest ones even speculated that there was nothing beneath the hood at all, and it was held in place only by a green light where her eyes should be and a floating smile. Naturally, this did not add to the necromancer's popularity, but it seemed like she didn't care.
We continued our training on our "training ground". The lack of barriers prevented Katrina, Ragni, or Seleria from unleashing their full power, but it allowed them to improve their weak points.
The Earth mages, along with Levris, visited us quite often and spent almost the entire day with us on weekends. The teacher was truly knowledgeable about all forms of magic. She suggested that Katrina work on improving her precision in using minor spells. The princess could easily take down a royal hydra with a single strike, but in a prolonged fight against multiple opponents, she lacked efficiency. The training was quite simple: Levris's students surrounded Katrina and threw medium-sized rocks at her with varying intervals, and her task was to break the flying stones with her lightning. Initially, she struggled with it, but it was amusing to watch the princess getting bombarded with rocks. However, soon enough, Katrina got the hang of it and could even deflect the small stones using her electric field. Yet, she lacked agility; while deflecting attacks from the front, her back remained vulnerable, and she couldn't always react to strikes from behind.
Unexpectedly, Ragni, seeing Katrina's progress, asked me for training! She was already a powerful fire mage, but what she lacked were close combat skills. Consequently, we trained every day: I wielded swords while the dragoness attempted to block them with her bracers. In due course, she stopped falling for my every feint. Her movements were fast and powerful, but they still couldn't match my agility. Honestly, this training benefited me more than the dragoness; I began to realize the imperfections of the first summoner's technique. Blocking sword attacks and making thrusts were viable only until the dragon started making unexpected moves during an attack. I needed to devise a different approach to attacking, and Ragni's wild, impromptu actions pushed me toward the right solution.
Seleria focused solely on enhancing the power of her flames. It seemed like she was trying to create a flame stronger than Ragni's. I got the impression that the strength of the black dragon offended her. Grain also started training in close combat and sometimes sparred with Ragni, replacing me. I don't know how Kurone's training went, as I didn't see her, which probably meant everything was going well.
To our surprise, two more regular guests appeared in our guild: Algo and Leira now visited us almost every day. I hoped to involve them in some way, but the right moment had not come yet.
Sometimes they even joined our training sessions. It was beneficial for me to spar with another swordsman occasionally since, strangely enough, my style was effective against him. With my short blade, I could block almost all of his attacks and parry the strong ones with both blades crossed or redirect them with a large tilt. Algo wasn't one to be left behind: he quickly learned to fight against my style, and soon, dealing with his attacks became not so simple.
As for Leira, most of the time, she just observed us, but occasionally, she trained with Seleria to enhance her spells. It seemed she was still afraid to use magic after her near-death experience.
"Maybe you'll finally join the guild?" Katrina decided to take the offensive. "You already spend all your free time with us anyway."
Leira timidly lowered her gaze: "Mmm, no, I won't join," she said. It seemed she had forgiven Katrina, but something still troubled her. "I'll probably stay with the lady, but if you don't mind, I'd like to practice with you some more." Katrina felt disappointed and didn't know how to respond. "Katrina, they are just observing. When they're ready, they'll ask to be accepted. Don't push them," I said. "Don't worry, I'm not sending you away, and you can come to us whenever you want," Katrina replied, unintentionally creating an awkward situation.
From the corner of my eye, I noticed a dark figure watching us from behind the house. But when I turned, there was nothing there. Circling around the guild, I heard hurried footsteps, but like last time, there were no signs of another person.
"Kurone, is that you fooling around?" "No, Master Krito, I noticed someone else here too." "AAH!!" Kurone appeared right behind me; her skills were improving: "You can't scare me like that! Do you think someone is following us?" "Perhaps." "Well, it's nothing new: first Seleria, then those two. I hope the next stalker will be more peaceful," I shrugged and returned to the courtyard.
In the following days, the feeling of being watched persisted. Katrina chatted carelessly with others, oblivious to the surveillance. The dark silhouette followed us even within the academy. At first, I thought it might be another one of Katrina's antagonists, but it seemed their target was me.
It was foolish to wait for the enemy to attack, so I decided to set a trap. The library was perfect for that.
After parting ways with Katrina after our training, I left, claiming I needed to go to the library. Well, it was almost true.
"What do you need in the library?" the princess asked, frowning. "We should be training to become stronger, not reading books." "Well, actually, I learned the fundamentals of my fighting style there," I replied. "You're acting quite suspicious today," she sensed something, unable to detect the surveillance for almost a week. "See you later," I had to run while I still had the chance.
Making sure the black shadow was tailing me, I turned into the library. I weaved through the shelves, shedding my tail, and climbed a ladder to remain hidden from the ground.
The figure in the cloak started to get nervous and ran through the corridors, trying to find me. Picking up a small book from the shelf, I threw it flat on the ground. The loud clap caught the pursuer's attention. With the same effortless motion, I sent a second book after the first. It landed neatly on the head of the cloaked figure, who fell unconscious on their back. Now, I had to find out who it was.
As I suspected, the silver staff with a skull revealed Rizel with her insidious intentions. The necromancer had been following me all day, during classes and after.
Poking her with her own staff, I extended it toward her and said playfully, "Oh, Lady Shinigami... Haven't you gone to your workplace yet?"
A slight moan came from under her cloak. Despite the somersault she made when falling, she didn't move an inch. Under the cloak, nothing was visible except for a green eye and a smile.
At first, her delicate hand reached for the staff, but realizing that someone was holding it, she looked up at me warily.
"Hello!" I waved to her with a silly smile on my face. "Uwaa!" the girl shrieked and scooted several meters away from me. "If you're so afraid of me, why were you following me for so long?" A silly thought flashed in my mind. "Maybe you're my first fan?" Rizel vigorously shook her head. Oh well, I had hoped for too much. Slowly, she took a piece of paper from her pocket and raised it in front of her face. "Come on, what's that?" It was the Academy's form, and by the header, everything became clear to me. An application for admission to the guild. Student: Rizel Guild: Storm Glaive. Signatures: GM: Assistant GM: At least, she didn't pose any threat. I approached closer and handed her the staff. "Why did you have to pursue me? You could have just talked to Katrina; she's the GM. The last people who followed us had not the friendliest intentions." With each of my sentences, the necromancer lifted the application higher and higher, trying to cover her face. "I-I-I'm sorry!" Suddenly snatching the staff from my hands, she leaped up and hurried away with unprecedented grace. "Um, what can I say..." Unexpectedly, even Kurone couldn't compare to this girl's shyness. "This will be difficult."
It seemed the tail had stopped pursuing me, and during the classes, Rizel tried to avoid me in every possible way. The necromancer would be useful in our guild, but would she apologize to a troll for throwing a magical arrow at him in the heat of battle? But for now, we didn't have any concrete plans. All the contracts Kurone proposed didn't satisfy Katrina due to their lack of "epicness," as she put it. We were on the verge of bankruptcy, having spent all the money from the first contract.
We continued our training in the courtyard, missing only Algo. Of course, he wasn't obliged to come, but today Leira was present, which raised some suspicions.
"Algo is not here today," Ragni complained about the absence of one of her regular sparring partners. "He said he received a letter from his father," Leira said reluctantly. "He had to go to the city to the post office." "Mmm, news from home," I mused, briefly thinking that in our company, four people hadn't received any news from their parents. "Huh? No, no, no. This is from my father. For some reason, he sends letters to Algo and asks him to deliver them to me." "Oh, so you two are that close?" Seleria smirked. "Don't make up any vulgarities there! He was my servant in childhood, and my father entrusted him with my protection. He even gave him a sword made by our best blacksmiths." "From all I've heard, I got 'My father entrusted me to him,'" at the last phrase, Seleria clapped her hands together and blinked rapidly.
Leira blushed with embarrassment. "Hmm, you two have progressed so far in your relationship," now even Ragni noticed the intensely blushing Leira. "By the way, I was curious about human mating rituals. Will you tell me about them later?"
Now, the girl, burning with shame, began to suffocate with anger. No, this dragoness needed to learn more about human customs.
"Well done, Ragni. Even I couldn't do that," Seleria slapped the dragoness on the shoulder in a brotherly manner.
"What-what-what are you imagining?!" Leira waved her hands, and the two princesses were blown away by gusts of wind she inadvertently summoned. "We don't have such a relationship, and besides, I will always be just Lady Leira to him."
She said the last sentence barely audibly, and the princesses couldn't hear it over the gusts of wind. But I caught its meaning.
"Lady Leira, urgent news!!" Algo appeared soon after the conversation, gesticulating wildly. He led Leira aside.
"What?! Did my father write something like that?" I thought I saw fear flash on Leira's face.
Without much thought, Leira approached our GM and bowed: "Princess, thank you for your hospitality. There is an urgent matter at my father's estate that requires my intervention. Algo and I are returning home."
Her address was unexpectedly formal, despite everything we had experienced together.
"Huh? Yes, of course, don't worry about it. I'll be waiting for your return," Katrina hardly understood the seriousness of the situation.
Leira grimaced slightly. "Yes... of course, I'll be back soon," her voice trembled, and it seemed like she doubted her own words.
"It sounds unconvincing," I decided to intervene before it was too late. "What are you afraid of?"
"No! I'm not afraid of them!" she blurted out.
"Who?" I pretended to act foolishly, as if not catching her hint.
"Nobody, why would you think that?" Her surprise was so unnatural that it left no doubts about its deceitfulness.
"Ragni, seize them and don't let them go."