Chapter 41
Rennel walked out of the airship after arriving at Turok looking quite refreshed. Thanks to the captain who dealt with the event on the airship professionally, the girl was able to enjoy the remaining of day of the journey.
Also, since she was rushing to meet her friend in sorcerer Cassandra’s tower, the girl declined the invitation from her fellow magician and even the captain to stay in their houses in the city as a guest. Now, as for the acolytes of the Sect of the Void who disguised themselves as the crew members, and poachers, they were taken by the authorities the moment the airship landed.
Normally, Rennel who played the biggest role in resolving the problems in the airship should have been invited by the authorities to be questioned and rewarded. But after showing her official badge as the sole disciple of the youngest elder from The Tower; no one dared to bother her after telling them off. As for the rewards and the likes, a proxy would deal with it.
“My new disciple badge is more useful than I thought.” Rennel commented while walking.
“That’s to be expected, it’s a badge from an elder after all. If it were just a regular badge, the authorities here might not be so accommodating.” Chaos replied after giving the girl the side-eye.
“Hehehe… Teacher’s right...” the girl let out a awkward laugh after being reminded of the usefulness of her new master’s name. “I wonder what gift I should bring back for master.”
“You can think of that some other time. For now you have to deal with that one.”
Chaos pointed at the huge flying creature hovering in the sky. It was the silver falcon. After being “tamed” by Rennel, the creature refuses to return to its nest and decided to follow the girl around.
“Oh…” Seeing the silver falcon following her from the sky, Rennel could only let out a sigh. “I guess we need to look for a place where it could stay after confirming Pina’s situation.”
Rennel walked towards the city gate while being followed by a monster king. It’s quite fortunate that the silver falcon was quite intelligent and knew that flying too low might alert people of its presence.
“Hey… you can come down now!” Rennel waved at the silver falcon hovering above head.
Squawk!
The silver falcon heard the girl’s call and happily squawked. It happily flew down and landed on the ground while creating while creating wind and causing dust to fly off.
After the falcon landed Rennel stared at it for a second before turning to her teacher, “Teacher, what are we going to do with her? I’ve ordered her to go back so many times already but she just won’t listen, and insisted to stay with me...” she complained.
Before Chaos could speak, the silver falcon beat him to it, “Master… please let me stay by your side.” she said. “Couldn’t you make me your familiar?
Yes, the silver falcon is female, and yes it could talk.
Chaos and Rennel weren’t really surprise at this as Black and even her pup, Bristle could speak the common language.
“That again? Why do insist on becoming my familiar? Don’t you like freedom?” the girl return her gaze back to the silver falcon and asked. “Why do you seem so different now? You were so ferocious when we were fighting back then!” she added with, huffing.
“I was immature,” the silver falcon answered awkwardly. “I saw the other aerial beasts attacking the airship so I decided to join them. Please don’t blame me too much for it.”
“Are you being serious? People could have died back then!” Rennel stumped her feet angrily after hearing the monster king’s reasoning.
Back in the airship she was trying to find out the reason why the silver falcon attacked them. It wasn’t too strange for the other aerial beasts as they’re less intelligent and was simply following their instinct. The silver falcon on the other hand was a monster king and judging by what the night wolf, Black had said before; all monster kings were very intelligent.
Meaning, the silver falcon was not just following her instinct but willingly joined the fight. Now Rennel finally understood why the silver falcon refuses to answer her despite questioning her so many times back in the airship.
“I’m terribly sorry…
“Sigh… just forget about it. It’s already in the past anyway. But… do you really want to become my familiar?”
“Yes!” The silver falcon nodded her like a chicken pecking on the ground.
“Teacher?” Rennel turned towards her teacher and asked for his opinion.
The silver falcon had seen the girl speaking to someone she couldn’t see so many times already but still couldn’t get used to it.
“Master, who are you speaking to?” she asked.
You’re already calling me master?” Rennel turned at the monster king with a look that say she’d given up. “Fine… Do whatever you want. Anyway, I’m talking to my teacher. Teacher, how about you show yourself?”
“That’s why I told you to speak to me telepathically,” came a voice filled with complain.
“Ugh… I’m doing just that while in the presence of the other people but for some reason I became careless when no other humans are around.” Rennel answered with embarrassment.
Hearing a neutral-sounding voice coming out of nowhere; the silver falcon was shocked silly.
****
“H, hello!”
The silver falcon greeted the mysterious white creature that suddenly appeared in front of it with a shivering voice.
When Chaos finally revealed himself, he had unknowingly released a bit of his aura. Although it was just a wisp, the power contained within it was so powerful that the monster king directly prostrated on the ground, shivering.
“Teacher… Please disperse your aura.” Rennel reminded with her hand on her forehead.
“It was an accident. I’m always suppressing it but it would still leak a little sometimes.” Chaos explained with a noncommittal look.
Chaos did what he was told and dispersed his overwhelming aura; allowing the silver falcon to breath a lot easier.
“Um teacher… Why don’t you do something about your aura leaking during inopportune times?”
“I already did. I’m using a seal to control my power. If not. Simply releasing my full power would have dire consequences on this planet.
Gulp!
Hearing the conversation between her new master and her master’s teacher made the monster king gulp in nervousness. How should she say it? The conversation was too high level even for her.
Could they speak in the language that mortal like her could understand? Sigh… No wonder she’d lost so miserably. Thinking about the fight between her and her new master, the silver falcon could not help but shiver again.
“It seemed that master didn’t give her all during that time. If not for that… I would have died!”
Although the silver falcon is a monster, she’s far from stupid. Her master’s mysterious teacher alone should be enough to tell her that the difference in their levels was overwhelming!
“What’s wrong?” Chaos turned towards the monster king that was looking at him with both awe and fear.
Noticing that she’s been very rude by looking at her new master’s teacher, the silver falcon’s silvery feathers all stood up making her look not threatening but fluffy and adorable. She quickly lowered her head and apologized while panicking.
“Nothing! Please forgive me!”
“Whatever…” Chaos rolled his eyes at the monster king before ignoring her. “Since you (begrudgingly) accepted her as your familiar, you should make good use of her. For example, you could use her as a mount. She’s big enough and should have no problem carrying a person as light as you.”
“Oh!” Rennel hit her right palm with the side of her left hand balled into a fist. Yeah, it was really a good idea. After all flying is much faster than walking or running.
“Silver falcon… what do you think?
“Please call me Sol. Also, it’ll be my pleasure to carry master on my back.” the silver falcon, Sol replied happily.
“So your name is Sol? What a beautiful name.” Rennel touched Sol’s head before caressing it. “Let’s do our best together from now on, okay?”
Squawk!
Sol squawked happily before releasing a silver light from her head which surprises Rennel who quickly removed her hand. The silver light flew and entered the back of the girl’s right hand. After the silver light died down, a strange symbol momentarily appeared before vanishing.
Although the symbol only appeared but an instant, it was enough for Rennel to see what it was. Moreover, information she didn’t know before appeared on her mind. It was the knowledge about the mysterious symbol and what it represented.
A soul contract – the most vicious of all the known contracts, as well, as the most difficult contract to break and dispel.
“Sol, why did you…?”
“I trust master!”
With the knowledge about the soul contract being engraved in his brain, Rennel knew full well of the viciousness of the aforementioned contract. It was not a contract that put the two parties on the same level but one party being on a higher position with complete control of the other.
In many ways, the soul contract was very similar to a slave contract except for the fact that the contractor could end the life of the contractee with but a mere thought. Moreover, the soul contract link the contractee’s life to that of the contractor which mean that Sol would die if Rennel died!
Yes, it was that vicious. It was for this reason that a soul contract was rarely used – both in the past and in the present.
“Hahahaha! How smart!” Chaos gave Sol the side-eye which made the monster king lowered her head in embarrassment.
How could Chaos not see through the silver falcon’s thought?
The reason the silver falcon willingly initiated the soul contract was because she believed that Rennel was destined for greatness and that she too, as her familiar would benefit once the girl reached her full potential.
Yes, the silver falcon was being conniving but initiating a soul contract takes a lot of courage. She’s basically gambling her own life in hope of further improvement. It’s a gamble with a huge risk. But if she won the gamble, her payoff would also be huge. This was the reason why Chaos praised Sol despite her reasoning.
****
“Incredible…”
Rennel has a wide smile on her face as she flew in the sky on Sol’s back. Despite riding an aerial beast, the ride was surprisingly comfortable even without a saddle.
“Master, is it comfortable on my back?”
“Yes! It’s very comfortable. What’s more, your feathers were very soft.” Rennel praises. “Still, your ability to soften, or harden your feathers depending on the situation was truly incredible. Is this your innate ability?”
Recalling her fight with Sol, Rennel remembered how hard and sharp her feathers were. But now it was as soft and comfortable as a pillow.
“Yes, master. One of my innate ability allows me to change the consistency and texture of my feathers at will. It’s an ability with many uses and could be used for offence, and defense. It could even allow me to fly faster and higher.”
“What a fantastic ability. But to think that it was just one of your inherent ability. Did you use all of them when fighting me and the poachers?”
Sol shook her head, “No, master. I have not used all of my innate abilities in that fight. Not because I don’t want to but because some of my abilities need to fulfill certain requirement before I could use them. For example, my most destructive offensive skill requires me to gather the energy from the sun for a length of time, about three minutes. Also, there must be a clear sky and the sun most be fully out before I could start charging.” she explained.
“That’s quite the strict requirements. Does that mean that you couldn’t use that skill at night?” Rennel asked.
“Yes, it’s exactly as master said.” Sol affirmed the girl’s conjuncture. “That said, I do have another inherent ability that could be used during the night. It’s a lot weaker than my day only inherent ability but it’s still very powerful. The requirements were also almost the same with the exception of the fact that I needed to gather the energy from the moon.”
“Very impressive. I wonder… if you were given enough time to charge your strongest attack during the battle with me and the poachers… Could the result have been different?”
“That’s difficult to say, master. If I were just fighting the crews of the airships and the poachers, then I might have won if I were able to use my most powerful offensive ability. But since you were there, I highly doubt that my attack would be as effective.
It was a fact that Sol was almost captured by the acolytes of the sect disguised as poachers but the reason it happened was because she has been fighting with her master and used up a lot of energy. If she was fighting the poachers from the start, the silver falcon was confident that she could win.
“I think we’re almost to our destination,” Chaos reminded when he noticed the two being too engrossed in their conversation.
As the two was conversing, they didn’t notice that they almost reached their destination. If not for a reminder from Chaos, they might have missed their stop.
Sol stopped flying while Rennel looked below her, and saw the mage tower that belonged to the Sorcerer Cassandra.
Finally, they've arrived...
****
To be continued
Previous Chapters: https://read.cash/@beastion
