Nisha entered the rear garden of the Dharnas estate.

Although it was a day where the academy held classes, neither the girl nor Henry were allowed to attend today.

Early in the morning, Grand Marshal Luthais Dharnas especially reminded them after breakfast that the two children were not allowed to go out for the time being, since he had to clear up some matter at work.

Thankfully, the weekend arrived tomorrow, so hopefully they would be allowed to go back to the Academy on the coming Day of Fire.

Aside from some unpleasant aspects such as the incredibly overt disdain from the smithing instructor and the subdued but sweltering hostility directed at her by Weston Blackburn, the dragon quite enjoyed attending the academy and learning new knowledge and crafts.

Being forced to stop going because of some unknown event would sadden her.

Right next to Nisha, Little Lia strolled into the garden.

The wolf enjoyed the later summer sun basking the entire estate in gentle warmth, while the plants showed the first sign of declining greenth.

Generally, her master often went out without her and rarely had the time to accompany the wolf during the morning and noon, making the current occurrence especially happy for Little Lia.

She already wracked her brain for fun methods to play together, lest another matter whisked away her master again.

Running around the stable and flower beds, Little Lia stretched her limbs and worked out her muscles for once.

Although the city lacked the small prey to play around with that the elf and wolf usually faced on the warrior trips, spending time with her master topped snacking on little monsters.

 

“Good morning, Nisha.”

Standing next to his mount, Henry greeted the girl first.

He had a brush in one hand and patted the neck of his [Guardian Griffon] with the other.

True to its nature as a contracted monster, the horse-like creature had grown rapidly in the last moon, as its head only used to go up to Henry’s chest before, yet now its shoulder height even slightly eclipsed his head.

One of the benefits a contracted monster enjoyed was the elevated growth rate until maturity due to the higher ranked aura or mana cultivation of its master.

The [Guardian Griffon] neighed with pleasure as the young man next to it worked on its feathery plumage with the brush.

According to her [Spirit Sight], the contracted monster was in the early second aura rank, a stately growth speed considering that it was contracted not too long ago.

Alerted by the presence of another person, the horse like monster eyed Nisha, whom it recognized by now.

Due to the keen senses of a wild animal, it also managed to discern the threat radiating from  the wolf and the elf and decided that the latter was far more dangerous.

Still, since its master cordially got along with her, the [Guardian Griffon] only eyed her nervously and then resumed enjoying the brush on its back.

As the previous ruler of the [Dragon’s Den], the little assessment did not escape Nisha’s eyes but she did not take issue with the young monster taking stock of her, deeming it as beneath her to assert dominance in this situation.

The other contracted beast under Henry was much more to the girl’s liking.

Sitting on a small pine that decorated the yard, a [Cerulean Sky Owl] blinked its large eyes at the gathering and observed everything silently.

 

Since it awakened its spiritual wisdom, the owl now understood more of the world than the dumb griffon it looked down on.

Furthermore, the awakening also meant that the bird now had the ability to cultivate mana and obtained a useful spell on top of that as well.

Henry was very satisfied with his contracts as well, hardly believing the extraordinary amount of luck he had to own two very high ranking beasts.

Although his [Guardian Griffon] had yet to show signs of establishing its wisdom and turning into a beast, yet the monster was famed for being a descendant of the mighty beast Gryphon.

It was all but guaranteed that his steed would also awaken as a beast someday.

“Good morning, Henry.”

Nisha returned the greeting and helplessly watched as her own contracted beast, Accalia, messed around in the garden.

Though the wolf looked like a [Wind Wolf] on the outside, it was uncommon for a normal species like that to turn into a beast.

As soon as the dragon had contracted the wolf with a drop of her blood in the past and had broken out of the egg, spiritual wisdom got unlocked for Little Lia and mana became available for her.

Hence, it was not quite suitable to assume that Accalia’s species still counted as [Wind Wolf].

Therefore, the frolicking wolf laughed at the owl who looked down at others - and in turn looked down on it.

These little power dynamics between monsters and beasts was quite common and barely managed to be of the girl’s notice.

Henry had no idea though, even as it happened right beneath his nose.

 

“Do you know why Ser Luthais asked us not to go out right now? It’s very unusual to hear something like that from the marshal, perhaps you know the reason?”

At the end of each school week, the warrior class went on a trip with a different mission around the capital.

Getting out of the city and running through the fields and forests reminded the dragon of the hunting lodge and her siblings back at the den.

And on top of that, there had to be a big incident to make the Grand Marshal Luthais Dharnas wary of letting his family members walk the streets of the capital.

“No, I don’t know much about what’s going on either.

Dad did not say much yesterday that indicated that there was something on his mind, though I might have missed it.

I’ve ordered a tailored set of stirrups and a saddle for my boy, I prepared to join the training drills of the knight order soon and was more focused on that.”

Henry cherished his contracted monster and beast quite a lot.

As the young scion of a prominent house, his path in the future would usually head along a few set routes, and with his limited amount of choices, he decided to enter a knight order and become a distinguished knight and commander.

Although the young man’s relaxed nature and laid back style contrasted a lot with his father, Ser Luthais, Henry did not think that it was impossible to succeed with his own methods either.

Having a strong mount with the potential to become a renowned beast and another flying beast supporting him from the sky only supplemented his dream of being a strong knight commander.

The strength of a contracted monster or beast was usually attributed to their contractor, the Beastmaster of [Silvershroud] was rather famous for his carefully nurtured beast companions instead of his own strength, which did not quite match up to the rest of his party.

Naturally, the difference was not too big, since the contract also influenced the master and helped with cultivation when the beasts were too far ahead, but Beastmaster had too many contracts, which diluted the overall impact from a single strong connection.

Nevertheless, with such an example, Henry could not wait to give all the good things to his two companions and raise them into fearsome presences on the battlefield.

 

“Weird, I have not heard anything either in school or from my trips to the [Adventurers Guild].

You would think there would be rumors if anything drastic happened, but I’ve heard nothing so far.”

Nisha had some very good connections, either at school or in the capital.

Despite not revealing her status as a potential heir of the Dharnas estate and the title of Count, her small circle of friends in the [Royal Academy] treated her as a genuine friend and often shared news with her in casual conversations.

Furthermore, only the elites of their respective circles, be that nobility, merchants or other influential gatherings, had the capability to send their children there.

While the population at large had not heard anything yet, rumors of big events easily spread in the academy ahead of time.

On top of that, the elf also had chances to overhear the common banter in the guild post above the Dungeon and the whispers between the lower rungs of the ­[Thieves Guild] - not many information brokers even had such a strong network to obtain news.

Still, none of these sources mentioned dangerous rumors that would spur the Grand Marshal in charge of the capital’s defense to advise the people close to him to stay away from the streets.

Seeing her master deep in thought, Little Lia sauntered over and intentionally flicked her tail against the nose of Henry’s [Guardian Griffon].

The wolf had played around enough and secretly gauged the two other monsters and beast present.

Currently, she judged the big horse like monster as a dumb lunk who failed to keep calm at the slightest provocation and the pesky flying owl as a nervous and tiny critter, which did not dare to look at her openly in fear of retaliation.

Overall, the wolf beast looked down on them both, not knowing that she was similarly looked down upon by the other two, part of the innate rivalry amid different beast species.

 

“Calm down, boy.”

Henry pulled at the temporary reins used on his [Guardian Griffon], which almost reared up after being provoked.

He did not understand why the otherwise obedient Griff suddenly flared up.

Of course, the young man also saw the tail flick, but did not think that it was worth much attention.

Only Nisha, a beast herself, understood the implication and the challenge hidden in that action, yet she decided to not bother about it.

Small fights like this had to be taken care of by the two parties involved, or either side would easily end up with resentment.

And secretly, the elf did think that Little Lia had an advantage over Griff, the [Guardian Griffin] - she had secretly laughed when she heard that Henry gave them the names Griff and Ceru after their species.

Normally, a contract between a human and a monster was taken care of by the spell engraved on the egg before they hatched.

Contrary to that, Nisha had a drop of blood extracted to bind Little Lia and Eisen bound to herself.

The changes were hardly noticeable in regular situations, just that the wolf was a tiny bit stronger, smarter and faster than a common [Wind Wolf].

Nevertheless, the floating elemental in her [Inner Space] and the sand coloured wolf had obtained a part of the dragon’s bloodline through the contract and most likely their potential vastly changed - that much was easy to tell for the elf, resonating with blood left behind in their bodies.

Nisha was pretty happy with Little Lia at least, who contributed to the warrior hunting trips and grew quite fast.

Whatever Eisen was doing in her mind eluded the girl at the moment, but she was not impressed at all, ranking the idle familiar even lower than Ceru, the [Cerulean Sky Owl].

 

“It should be fine to go out if you really need to, though. From my understanding, dad only wants us to be more careful and avoid places like side streets and similar places which you can’t easily see from the outside.

Once dad confirms the threat he is wary of, he will either tell us more or give us the all clear after taking care of it.

Just be more careful when going out.”

Henry had long since become accustomed to the independent and strong personality of the young lady in their House.

As long as there was no direct threat, it was easy to guess that the elf was not scared of going out.

On top of that, the young man similarly had no plans to turtle up at home, he only reminded himself to pay more attention and keep an eye out.

“Thank you.”