Daimon was again convinced that half emperors tend to be quite eccentric, Calvin’s grandfather seemed to be serious but then he became as relaxed as Calvin a second later.
Aura already prepared one last contract knowing Solomon will join them too, so she simply took it out of her ring and handed it to him.
Surprisingly Solomon didn’t read it but instead passed it to Mireya, which thoroughly reviewed the clauses before nodding.
“Just sign it already old drunkard”, she said in an annoyed voice, while she inwardly cursed her older brother for using the excuse of being busy as the clan head, to avoid having to deal with their father.
Solomon chuckled, to be honest he already decided to sign it, reuniting five half emperors under one flag is something no one has ever achieved before, and yet the black-haired youth in front of him did it.
Not only that, the team that gathered around Daimon wasn’t simple at all, two disciples of half emperors, the princesses of the Risha family which have the backing of the most respected veteran and the young lady of the only family with light affinity in the whole beast faction.
Solomon returned the contract to Aura before he said goodbye to them as he went upstairs, not without stealing a gaze at Daimon as he left.
“Someone outstanding draws outstanding people at his side, I have lived so many years and experienced so many things in my life, to the point where I can’t remember the last time, I was truly surprised by something, let’s see if you can create a “wave” big enough to make the stagnated waters of this galaxy flow once again… Daimon Licht”.
“Cough!”, Mireya nearly choked with her drink, since when her father complimented someone while still being sober, she asked to herself.
Her impression of Daimon went up another notch, her father is one of the few people that can treat other half emperors as juniors after all, if he was impressed by Daimon, that meant there was more to him than what meets the eye.
Calvin brought the dishes to the table for everyone to eat what they wanted, although the food wasn’t luxurious as it consisted in some meat from magic beasts, stew, some salad, mashed potatoes, bread and other complements which were snacks commonly seen in bars, like fries, everything was rather tasty.
“Calvin when is your friend arriving to Lykos, we still have to see whether his skills are up to the task… the second years have their own missions after all”, said Daimon as he chewed a piece of grilled meat.
“Mm?”, Arianna who was enjoying a bowl of stew, raised an eyebrow at the current subject, Daimon was talking about giving away one spot for the exploration of the second years, while the current captain was Samuel Jolbaris, but since she was going to follow them back to the academy, she decided to wait to clear her doubts.
Calvin scratched the back of his head as he answered.
“She will arrive tomorrow, sorry about that, there was some “inconveniences” which made her stay behind one day more”.
Calvin then felt all of his classmates weirdly looking at him, which made him frown.
“What did I spill sauce in my clothes or something?”, he asked confused about why he was being looked as if he said something incredible.
“It’s not that, we are just genuinely surprised that you can have a female friend”, they all said as if they have discussed it beforehand.
Mireya couldn’t hold back her laugh; she patted Calvin’s shoulder before explaining.
“Let’s just say that if that relationship were to exist, the one playing the role of the woman would be Calvin hahaha”.
Calvin felt a vein popping on his neck, but in a rare occasion he seemed to agree with his aunt, which caught Daimon’s interest.
Calvin is quite tall and although he isn’t a macho guy, he is rather bulky, so for him to be outshined by a girl, the latter must be a knight and probably not from the desert coyote race, where females have slim constitutions.
“Ahem, my old man and her father are friends, she has saved my ass a couple of times before so I’m only returning the favor, that’s all”, said Calvin as he gazed at Loren.
Loren covered her mouth with one hand as she giggled, finding the whole situation rather funny, but she was also interested in knowing more about Calvin, Mireya had told her some stories of when Calvin was younger so she already knew about said friend.
After they finished their meal, Calvin and Loren stayed behind with Mireya, the Risha mothers and daughters returned to the girl’s dormitories, Daimon and the girls including Arianna were transported back to the mansion in the academy by Aura using space shift.
Before Arianna could react, the surroundings changed from the main hall of the happy wanderer, to a modernly designed living room.
She then turned to see the others, and only now noticed that besides Liz, Elaine and Aisha, Erin was here too.
“Miss Erin were you here all this time?”, she asked, genuinely confused about why she didn’t show herself earlier.
Aura shook her head; unlike the others she could see through the dark curtain so she watched Erin flirting with Daimon during the past two hours or so.
“As your master let me give you an advice, don’t put too much attention to that cunning fox woman”, said Aura as she sat on the couch, making Erin softly giggle.
Arianna bitterly smiled, ignoring a half emperor it’s easier said than done, but she also took notice that her master and Erin seemed quite close and informal between each other.
Aura then pointed at Daimon as she cleared her throat.
“Ahem, leaving that aside, go and present yourself properly to your senior brother”.
Arianna walked towards Daimon, she then rose the sides of her skirt and presented herself.
“We already met before young mas- senior brother, I’m Arianna Argent, I’ll be in your care”.
Daimon nodded in recognition, he stood up from the couch and accepted her gesture by placing his hand on his chest as he slightly bowed his head, with this they were officially sister and brother under the same master
“It’s a pleasure, also just call me Daimon as we now share the same master… I don’t like formalities”.
Arianna put on a surprised expression, compared to the scary cold blooded young man she met before, the Daimon of right now seemed more mature and relaxed as if he had grown in just a matter of days.
She previously thought this was going to be more awkward so she was prepared to be looked down on, but to her surprise that wasn’t the case.
Seeing her surprised expression, Daimon scratched the back of his head, back then he slightly over-reacted, the “he” of right now would have let Aisha handle those guys by herself, she wasn’t a defenseless girl after all.
Erin smiled, feeling the slightly stiff atmosphere she offered Arianna a seat as she patted her shoulder.
“Don’t worry about him little girl, Daimon is a bit rude with everyone, he even calls me by my name, I wonder where did I go wrong at raising him”, said Erin as she put on an expression like the one of a mother who has to deal with a rebellious son.
Arianna saw Daimon chuckling and she more or less understood that even if in public they kept some distance, in private they acted more like a family, which made things easier for her.
“Okay, you can also call me Arianna”.
Aura smiled, she also stood up and with a wave of her hand a small cut appeared on Daimon and Arianna’s right hands.
“Join hands you two”.
Daimon already knew this was the tradition among werewolves, so he simply followed the instructions, it was just a symbolic exchange of blood between two people.
“From now and onwards even if you two don’t share the same blood, you are brother and sister under me Aura Argent”.
,m Now that the ceremony was over, Daimon let go of Arianna’s hand and he returned to his seat, Arianna did the same after looking at her palm which had a small stain of blood on it, but he didn’t clean it.
As a werewolf she clearly understood the meaning of the previous ceremony.
“Earlier you mentioned something about a spot in the exploration of the second years, but only students of the academy can use the spots and if there were to be spaces left, they would normally be assigned to other students of the elite class?”.
Before Daimon could say anything, Aura took out a pair of jade cases and placed them on the table in front of her.
“Speaking of that, here are the lotuses that the ocean queen used as payment for the spot you offered”.
“Oh?”, Daimon took one of the cases and he slightly opened the lid, which let a faint trace of cold air to leak out of it.
Daimon then stole a gaze at Elaine, he got this specific resource for her after all.
“S-Snow lotus!”, exclaimed Arianna, her pupils contracted a bit, as the descendant of the elder with the highest authority of one of the three biggest families, she of course recognized the exclusive resource of the Ocean Heart academy.
Then she made memory and earlier after her match was over, she remembered having caught a glimpse of a woman with shoulder length blue hair and blue yes, sitting at the same height as the half emperors and the only one which matched that description with such a high status was the principal of the Ocean Heart academy.
“If the Ocean Queen was there then the principals of the Earth Palace and the Furious Whirlwind academies should have come too, what a shame master didn’t get a piece of the thunder nimbus vine”, she said as she looked at Daimon.