Over the next few days, nothing notable happened. During the advanced mana classes, Smoke kept away from me, but I often caught him glaring at me with anger in his grey eyes. And during other lessons, I would often see smoke in unusual places. I assumed he was watching me but didn't care much for it. He was weak.

At the end of the week was the first event so to say. In the sorcery lessons, we had finally finished all preparations we needed to make in order for us to summon our first spirits. Elsa stood in the front of the class, next to a round stone plate that had a slightly greenish tint to it. She explained that this would be the thing that would serve as a connection. On the table behind her were two things, a large container filled with mana crystals, all of them empty, and a jar filled with dark green leaves, their skeleton scarlet in colour. And at her feet, I could see cuffs connected to chains, made out of a dark metal that reminded me of the cages she had carried around on the first day. She then proceeded to call the names of people in the order she wanted them to summon the spirits. I didn't really care so I barely paid attention to any of it but from what I saw everyone just summon low-level spirits that weren't really good for anything, that was until Servil got to summon a spirit.

Now was also the first time I noticed the process of how to do it. Servil slowly channelled mana into the empty mana crystal filling it and turning it a bright grey that was almost silver, almost. He then put it in the middle of the stone plate. A white ring appeared on it with strange symbols engraved on it. Servil then put his hand in the glass jar and took out a handful of the leaves which he then let fall down into the circle. As if by design they spread almost too evenly. Shortly after they were blown into the air by a small whirlwind. A silvery glow appeared from inside the whirlwind which disappeared and revealed a small bird, a robin, grey feathers, grey beak, grey legs and a red breast. It hovered mid-air, its wings extended as if something was pushing it up from below so evenly and constant that it never once seemed to change its position.

The spirit's black eyes were fixated on Servil as its head tilted slightly to the side.

"Hello there," Servil said.

The bird didn't answer.

"Now, this is interesting. Before us, we have a strong spirit!" Elsa exclaimed.

The spirit completely ignored her completely. Instead it just suddenly decided to start moving towards Servils. Gracefully the bird spirit flew through the air, landing on Servils shoulder and inspecting him from much closer. Then it suddenly pecked him on the neck, leaving behind a red mark that seemed to glow.

Elsa seemed surprised while Servil just looked confused.

"W-Wha-" he began but Elsa interrupted him.

"The spirit is trying to make an equals contract with you," Elsa explained.

"It is?" Servil responded, surprised by this sudden revelation.

He turned his head and looked at the spirit on his shoulder. The spirit nodded, its eyes never leaving him. Servil then nodded and touched the spirit with one finger. Both the red mark and the spot where Servil had touched the spirit lit up with a silvery light, a light that quickly turned into a full-on whirlwind that made the hair of those sitting in the front flutter around violently. Once that whole thing had calmed down things became less interesting, after a lengthy praise from Elsa directed at Servil of course.

Nether Evergreen, Nara nor Ivory summoned any great spirits, although Ivory decided to make a forced contract with the spirit she summoned, a small fox, similar to the one down in the room where Elsa taught the advanced mana class. She did that by quickly catching it with a speed that seemed too fast, which also made me realize that Ira stated Ivory would be capable of defeating Terror...

'She's usually holding back, isn't she?' I asked.

'Don't know but something about that girl is quite strange, it feels like she's hiding something,' Ira stated.

Once Ivory had caught the fox she got a small cuff handed to her by Elsa and forcibly put it on the little fox. During the entire thing, I could see Evergreen looking at her angrily. I chuckled, already smelling the drama this would cause.

And now, after all the others had been called on by Elsa, it was my turn to summon a spirit. Reluctantly I walked down the stairs, both hands in my pockets. When I picked up the empty mana crystal I sighed, filling it with black and white mana in almost an instant. In the corner of my eye, I could see Elsa's eyes widening. I put the crystal down in the middle of the stone plate and a ring appeared, although this one looked far finer than the others I had seen with a strange pattern seemingly engraved into the plate itself being revealed after a few seconds. I then grabbed the entire jar and just turned it on its head, letting all of the leaves inside fall onto the stone plate.

Now let's get this over with...

Just like they had with the others the leaves even covered the area inside the white circle. Elsa and everyone else in the room just looked shocked, Elsa more at the colour of my mana while the rest was shocked because I just threw about a hundred or so of those leaves onto the stone plate even though Elsa had apparently instructed to only use a handful.

Black smoke began rising towards the high ceiling of the room. Becoming thicker and thicker until it suddenly disappeared, in its place: a small humanoid figure with white skin, yellow hair, wearing a black dress decorated with gold. Extending from what I assumed to be a fairy were two wings, about twice the size of the about thirty-centimetre tall spirit. She looked me dead in the eyes. Her eyes glowing a bright orange. Minutes must have passed until either of us finally said something. Even Ira had been silent and none in the room dared to speak.

"Hey," the spirit said.

"Jo," I responded both hands once again in my pockets.

The spirit looked around the room for a little while, then sighed.

"How disappointing," I could hear her whisper.

I raised an eyebrow at her words. She just smiled back.

"So, you wanna work together?" the spirit asked me.

Gasping suddenly filled the room and I rolled my eyes. While that was happening the spirit extended her hand towards me.

'What do you think?" I asked Ira.

'I gotta sit this one out, that thing is hiding everything, can't even tell what kind of spirit that is,' Ira stated.

'Now that is interesting...' I responded.

I extended my hand towards the spirit.

"Sure," I responded, shaking the fairies hand.

Black smoke immediately surrounded us and I suddenly felt something appear on the back of my left hand. A small mark, resembling a jagged leaf. The spirit was gone but something had appeared in my head, a second voice, besides that of Ira.

'Quite nice in here, although I now realize that I made a contract with someone that is quite possibly a psycho...' the spirit said.

'How nice, another voice in my head... not like I had enough of those already...' I responded jokingly.

By now the smoke that had surrounded us had disappeared and I could quite clearly see Elsa's widened eyes.

"W-Where is that spirit?" Elsa asked.

I shrugged.

"No clue, just disappeared after we shook hands," I responded, acting cluelessly.

I saw Elsa swallow.

"Alright, class is over, for now, I want you all to just go to the next lesson! Mister Altair, I'd like to talk to you in private," she said.

I sighed as silently as possible.

Again?