“Isn’t a summoned only capable of having one spirit?” I questioned, believing that to be so since Farnese was terribly disappointed in me.

“That’s correct. However, spirits can be transferred to other users if both users and spirits accept. Of course, that it may cause the new user to die because of a lack of compatibility. Thus, few undergo the process unless the gain is well worth it.”

‘No one would have risked their lives for that weak me,’ thanks to his explanation, I felt a bit of her despair. In her place, I, too, would have suffered.

“Is everyone a noble?”

“Bastards, unwanted and abandoned kids make up the army once they grow up.”

‘They would end up hating the nobles who got rid of them,’ such words passed through my mind. All in all, it was an excellent strategy to use their tragic past for them to become ruthless soldiers.

“Can a half-human, half-spirit summon a spirit if they have some noble blood?”

“They can, but the rarity would be a lot smaller than the one of a bastard,” he halted by a closed door, opening it.

“This will be your room for the time being. Two beds, you’ll share it with another spirit.”

“Oh, okay!” I entered, looking at the simplicity of the furniture. Everything looked handmade and cheap. Though considering they had a lot of mouths to feed, this much was already plentiful.

“You can rest a bit. Food will be delivered at certain times. You’ll be taken early every morning to the training ground.”

“Sure.”

Without uttering anything else, he left, closing the door in the process. 

‘He didn’t seem surprised about me talking,’ I thought about the reason, failing to achieve anything concrete.

I ended up laying down on the bed to the right as the other one had belongings on top of it.

My eyes closed, and my consciousness faded away. 

“Hey wake up!” 

There was an annoyance trying to wake me up, worse wasn’t the words that came with willingness imbued in them but the poking of a finger on my cheek as if it was a donut.

With some struggle, my eyes opened, only to see a horrifying face. The woman had snakes as hair and a blue light skin tone. The sounds of the twitching animals scared me, even more so whenever they hissed with their tongues.

“Calm down, I’m your roommate,” she took a few steps back, allowing me to check her naked body. For some reason, even her lower half had tiny snakes on top of her clitoris, making me think they were there to protect it from any intruder.

“Who...” I halted my speech as she had told me about her. “What’s your name?”

“Oh? That was a fast recovery,” she smiled eagerly at me. “My last roommate ran at such speed that he broke the door down, and a wall, and another door...”

I stared at her, speechless at such a long description and how strong that spirit must have been to destroy everything.

“He’s still quite a coward, that stupid Van,” she crossed her arms causing her chest to stay comfortably atop them.

“I’m Mio, a newcomer,” out of habit I extended my hand slowly, causing her to grab it and shake it softly.

“I’m Medusa, or so my master decided to call me. It was either that or Viper, but I like this one more.”

At her smile, I let go of her hand, “I think it suits you.”

“Thank you, Mio,” her finger scratched her cheek. Her face turned slightly to the side as she whispered loud enough for me to hear, “thank you for not running away in fear.”

“If you weren’t this cute, I would have,” I giggled, blushing at the sudden redness of her cheeks, realizing my sudden compliment.

At that moment, we heard someone knocking on the door three times and then it opened. A man came through with a wooden cart, bringing some similarly material-made plates with food on them.

“Once you are done eating, take the fox to the evaluation and examination exams.”

“Will do ma’am.”

“Enjoy your meals,” she took the cart out of the room, closing the door on her way out, possibly heading to the next one to feed more spirits.

“We have to do exams?”

“Sort of. It’s nothing hard. If anything, it’ll give the military an interesting result.”

“Is that so?” Out of all the utensils I picked my favorite one, the spoon, using it for pretty much every dish: the one with rice and colored tiny vegetables in it along with tinier brown meat pieces, and the even smaller white grains of rice. I mixed everything together and ate it with a big smile. It wasn’t as good as Farnese’s maid, Cassandra’s meal. Or had it been Lia? I no longer remembered who was who, but this food was simple, yet delicious.

“Hey you, stop that! This is mine!”

My eyes peeked at my roommate, who struggled to eat against the snakes that also wanted a piece of the meal, causing me to giggle innocently.

“Finding this funny are you?” her gaze seemed more troubled than menacing, causing me to cover my mouth with my hand, avoiding laughing more, but completely failing.

“How dare you make fun of me,” once more one of them stole a piece of the meat, “and stop it! This is my food!” She kept bickering with her six snakes as they all tried to take a piece of her food.

Once my stomach was full, I gave her my leftovers as the snakes had been rather evil to her, causing her to smile with a tear coming out of her blue eyes, “thank you, Mio! You’re such a friendly fellow! I’ll never forget this debt!”

She mumbled some more words while gobbling her food before the snake’s appetite came back, causing me to smile despite not understanding her because her mouth was full.