"What are you doing? Acting like a rooster spreading its tail?"
Nicola's words were venomous without any mercy.
"My main wife, are you jealous? Dare to try attacking me?"
Cyra retorted without losing any momentum.
"Humph, you think I don't dare?"
Nicola was provoked by her words. She rolled up her sleeves, spread her claws, and wanted to rush forward to pull out feathers.
"Wait wait wait!"
Seeing this, Cyra immediately lost her coolness and retreated two to three steps in fear, raising her hands repeatedly to stop Nicola.
"We agreed this would be a magical attack, not a physical attack! Pulling out feathers would be an illegal act!"
"Is that so?"
Nicola frowned and turned to ask Aetna. It was clear she was very disappointed to not be able to pull out feathers.
"Yes, we are currently discussing magical defences. Physical defences cannot be done."
Aetna nodded in confirmation, then praised Cyra:
"You did well, you can stop now."
"That's it already? But I didn't see anything happen at all. Was there any difference?"
Seeing this, Nicola asked in puzzlement.
"I think I saw a little bit..."
When they were talking just now, I had purposely walked closer to observe. I discovered that the outer edges of Cyra's wings seemed to give off a layer of white light. But since the wings themselves were white, it was not very noticeable.
"What Feliciana said is right. That layer of white light is the light element. It can have the same immune effect as the body."
Hearing what I saw, Aetna nodded approvingly to answer.
When Nicola heard this, she threatened and coerced Cyra to demonstrate it one more time before she could finally see it.
"We angels can easily control the light element in our bodies. So as long as we release the light element along the wings, we can achieve this effect. But to be effective in defence, we must maintain above a certain concentration of light elements. Additionally, the light element released externally will dissipate by itself. In other words, this is an extremely light element-consuming skill. However, as long as you reach four wings and above, you can completely achieve a positive cycle. So strictly speaking, this does not belong to the category of magic, it can only be considered a special ability we angels have."
What followed was the teacher's detailed explanation. The theory was quite simple, but it was still somewhat difficult to put into practice.
After the theory, naturally, it entered the favourite practice session. This time, Cyra could finally practice together with us. Naturally, this gave her plenty of opportunities to show off. Along the way, there was inevitably all kinds of ridicule and dissent from me and Nicola.
...
"I'm going to see Reed."
Time passed quickly. After today's lessons were over, Nicola bid me goodbye, then spread her wings and flew up into the sky.
Seeing that she was finally fulfilling her promise, I also breathed a sigh of relief. Otherwise, with Reed's unsociable personality, if this continued, it was very likely things could turn ugly.
Cyra suggested we go out together to wander the city for a while, but I refused. Because the flight class in the morning was very unfamiliar to me. So I decided to stay at the battle arena to keep practicing.
"You have always been quite diligent..."
Cyra stayed by my side to watch me practice. Her words were full of admiration:
"Although your grades in high school were not as outstanding as Reed's, you were still pretty good. Otherwise, Quinn wouldn't have liked you either."
"Oh stop, all I did was mug textbooks to death. I wasn't even as good as you."
Thinking back to my high school study life, I also sighed.
"Although your grades were only slightly below mine back then, you had a lot more fun! I still can't forget that time in our third year when you took me home to secretly watch anime. That scene is stuck in my mind."
"You still remember that? I thought you had forgotten..."
Speaking of this, Cyra was also full of feelings.
"I remember we were only halfway through the episode when suddenly my dad coughed from behind us. I was so frightened my soul nearly flew away. I didn't even hear him come in, not a single sound."
"Yes, exactly!"
My impression of what happened was also very deep. I repeatedly voiced my agreement:
"I thought you would be in for some nasty punishment. But unexpectedly your dad just said 'It is acceptable to occasionally enjoy some entertainment during study breaks, but you need to pay attention to moderation.'. Then he walked away. I was so shocked I just stared with my jaw hanging open!"
"What's so strange about that!"
Cyra disapprovingly waved her hand to correct me:
"The most critical thing was the last sentence he threw out before leaving. That's what mattered!"
"The fear of being ruled by August!" (Reference to the 2015 anime "The Disappearance of Nagato Yuki-chan")
The two of us repeated this line in unison, bursting out laughing together.
"I didn't expect your old man to be an anime fan too. I guess the apple doesn't fall far from the tree huh!"
My words were filled with immense envy.
"He's just a nerd! He would often just squat at home occupying my computer to binge-watch anime during holidays instead of bringing me out to play."
Although Cyra complained, one could still sense her longing for her father.
"Sigh, unfortunately, there's no chance to see him again..."
"Don't..."
I wanted to comfort her and say that perhaps there might be a way to return in the future. But then I thought about how Cyra has completely changed as a person now, even her gender was different. So even if we really could return, her family may not recognize her anymore. I could only forcefully swallow back my words.
"Forget it, let's not talk about this anymore. Tell me more about some of the daily happenings from your life in the outside world!"
Cyra put on a smile to change the topic, shifting the focus back onto me.
"As an angel, isn't life very glorious for you in the human world? Being worshipped everywhere you go?"
"Not really. Although angels are rarely seen in human nations, there are still plenty of people more powerful than angels. So it's not as exaggerated as you imagine."
I shook my head and did not conceal the truth from her, recounting my experience taking the Adventurer's Guild test in the royal capital.
"My position and evaluation in the outside world is rather low. So I hope to use this opportunity to work hard and improve."
"Are angels in the outside world really that incredible?"
Hearing that two-winged angels were all at least tier 4, Cyra clicked her tongue in surprise. Meanwhile, as a six-winged angel, my evaluation was only tier 3, so naturally, I became the target of her mockery as well.
"If I were to go, surely I could achieve tier 5 right?"
As expected, she was back to her usual boastful ways.
"Hey, even Nicola is only tier 5. You should just focus on advancing your tier quickly if you want to have any chance of going out. Don't let your guard down."
I couldn't help but snort. Although Cyra was likely stronger than me initially, things were different now after entering Edenmere. I believed that after studying here for some time, I would be able to reach the normal level.
"That's why I'm practicing now, isn't it? Just slightly different from how you practice..."
Cyra pointed to the wings behind her as she said so.
"The wings of two-wing angels can't achieve a positive cycle for defence. According to teacher Aetna, this allows us to temper our wings' ability to absorb light elements, raising our advancement speed."
"There's this theory?"
I looked at her wings in surprise. Indeed, faint traces of white light could vaguely be seen emanating from them.
"Then you should try to maintain that state as much as possible. If you can keep doing that even when sleeping, wouldn't that be just like practicing internal strength continuously? Although that analogy sucks..."
"The light element in the rooms is isolated while sleeping. How am I supposed to absorb any?"
Cyra rolled her eyes at me.
"You should pay more attention to your practice instead. Your moves look terrible, like a white-sliced chicken flailing around on a plate. Speaking of food, I'm feeling hungry again..."
"Piss off!"
I lashed out an angry kick at her.
...
8 pm, in the banquet hall of the Thifa Palace, I saw Elara again.
At this moment she was dressed in a white formal gown, seated upright at the head of the long banquet table. On either side of her were also seated several other angels whom I had never seen before. Without exception, all of their wings numbered either ten or eight.
"I thought this was supposed to be a welcome banquet? Who are these big shots anyway?"
I lowered my head to whisper to Cyra beside me. Somehow the atmosphere did not feel as wonderful as I had imagined.
"Don't know, we didn't see these people appear during our banquet previously."
Cyra was clueless. And Nicola still wasn't here, looks like she got held up by Reed.
"That Nicola still hasn't arrived? How arrogant, making us wait so long!"
Suddenly, a ten-winged angel seated to the right of Elara lightly snorted. She looked very displeased. Naturally, the waiting period she referred to was the time after the light element isolation device had taken effect when we would start feeling hungry pangs.
"Elara..."
At this moment, Norma pushed open the doors to the banquet hall and walked over respectfully:
"Just now Reed sent me to deliver a message. She said Nicola has to help with her experiment, so very sorry cannot make it for the banquet."
"I see, alright then."
Elara remained calm as she briefly acknowledged the message. Then she said to the angels on both sides as well as me and Cyra:
"Then let us begin the banquet now. Please serve the dishes."
As her voice fell, Norma clapped her hands towards the door. Immediately a line of angels strode in carrying plates and dishes.
The serving staff this time were finally angels, two-wings and four-wings. I looked upon them and suddenly found them far more visually pleasing than the light elves.
"I think you have been far too lenient with that newborn angel Reed."
Taking the chance while the food was being served, the previously vocal ten-winged angel continued addressing Elara with dissatisfaction:
"No matter how capable she is in creating new magic, she still only has two wings. Her strength is too lacking. She should not have been allocated so many resources to mess around randomly in the library! And now she even brought along another angel to jointly skip out on such an important banquet without good reason!"
I had not expected this ten-winged angel to dare speak to Elara in such a tone. Adding in her previous words and conduct, I could ascertain her identity was not simple.