A moment after dishing out his instructions, Lalhal’s face turned ghastly pale with realisation. He had just spited the princess in his pettiness. He looked at the students that stared back at him in silent shock; then he noticed the Shadows glaring at him.

In his fit of anger, he had punished the entire class including the Princess of Saint Empire. Yes, he had carefully thought up the way to get back at her, but the blood had rushed to his head.

In his youth, as an unparalleled genius in one of the most ancient and powerful families in the empire, he was never denied. And because of that, he lacked the self-control that others would have.

The Princess’ guards were furious at his offence, and they walked over surrounding him.

“Boy,” one of the Shadows began saying.

Lalhal immediately gets a run of goosebumps listening to the voice with unmasked hostility.

He prepared himself to be apprehended for insulting royalty.

“What a fool I am! Why couldn’t I control my mouth?!”

However, an adorable sounding voice became his unexpected saviour, as the princess stopped them, “its okay. Instead, for painstakingly giving us his time, we should be thanking Instructor Lalhal. I never had the chance for such activity, and, I am really looking forward to it!”

The tension broke apart like an overfilled water balloon. The Shadows immediately halted their approach, and the students cheered. Even Luciette, George and Alucard who are leaders of men became affected by her aura and were full of smiles.

As a member of the royal family, her presence is nothing short of extraordinary. A trait that the ancient royal bloodline of the Vestimore family is born with and further developed by the endless classes for poise, grace, elegance, and etiquette that each royalty had to endure. But, more than so, she had a strange way of affecting others, like her every word was rain on a parched desert for their souls.

The class immediately became a frenzy of activity.

For practitioners, not sleeping for a few days is no big deal, and enthusiastically prepared for the Contract Beast bouts.

While everyone is busy, Alan took the chance to approach Lalhal, and he asked in a soft voice, “How do we give instructions to our Contract Beasts to battle?”

Lalhal almost had a fit from hearing that. He bit down on his lips to calm himself down. The last thing he wants is to lose his temper again before the princess.

Taking a long breath, the instructor answered in a shuddering voice, “You are soul-linked with your Contract Beast! Try to share your intents using images and emotions. When it receives those things, it will understand what you want.

When you and your partner become more proficient in communicating, even words can be used.”

“Oh, I’ll try that out later. Then, how do we fuse with our Combat Beast?”

“AHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!” Lalhal screams in frustration.

After doing some emergency breathing exercises, the instructor who almost calmed down discovered the boy appeared unmindful of creating his previous meltdown, and he nearly burst a vein.

Rolling his eyes and sighing his resignation, Lalhal explained with inhuman patience, “After forming a contract with your beast, it lives within you. Instead of summoning it, ask it to lend its power to you. Visualise your needs, and you will gain unique abilities.”

After saying this, the instructor immediately turned tail and ran, like he had met a monster. In some way, it’s true.

He believes that another question from this boy would burst his heart and become the end of him.

On the other hand, Alan was quite satisfied with the answer. Although he couldn’t understand why Lalhal had to bolt, he was thankful for the professor.

Pleased with himself, the boy cheerfully returns to his team with the new know-how. Their group had almost no knowledge of taming to begin with, and moreover, they had missed their first lesson. What little they know had only come from the Beast Shop’s attendant when they made the purchases, and from what Snow said, the first time she saw their contract partners.

When they fought in the Silent Lambs Empire previously, they were just screwing around without the slightest inkling of proper Contract Beast combat techniques; It’s a miracle they managed to draw on their partners’ strength and beat back so many foes.

Unlike them, the other students are proficient in the art. Without a certain amount of aptitude and skill, they would not be qualified for this course. Because of Principal Gai’s favour, the five of them are the only exceptions.

After revealing her status, Relestia went towards Kairos with an apologetic look on her face.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to hide my identity,” She shrunk a little as she said in a tiny voice.

Kairos shook his head slightly, then smiled warmly, “I did not expect you to be the princess, but thank you.”

“Whatever for?”

“You’ve helped my brothers, and I will not forget this favour,” Kairos answered stiffly. His greatest worry was the secrets they held, and one of the most dangerous information to be found out was the existence of Jim’s Zhu Que. He has no illusion that the Snowdrifts barely dodged an arrow today.

Relestia frowned a little at his reply then whispered to herself, “Big brother Kairos had mixed around with the guys too much, and don’t know about girls.”

Leaving a confused Kairos alone, she joined the students who are setting up.

Though everyone was apprehensive of the tasks being too demeaning for a princess, Relestia quickly convinced them and joined in. For her, doing the simplest tasks gave her a deep satisfaction that the others wouldn’t understand. She never had to do anything back home, but it only made her feel like a useless person.

With a smile on her face, she worked hard, and in turn, her infectious happiness caused the other students to find joy in the labour.

Because of the impromptu nature of the extra lesson, everything was made from scratch, but an arena was erected far quicker than normal. And, the result was much more elaborate than required. There was an entire stone wall surrounding the place, complete with doors and viewing portholes.

Soon, the arena is filled up with all kinds of powerful beasts, both great and small, for the first bout.

The boys’ expressions quickly turn serious. Mostly every creature in the arena was fully grown, and each was more powerful than those usually sold in shops.

For the academy’s students, taming a matured beast well within their capacities.

Except for Relestia and Kairos’ four friends, the other participants are all beasts tamed from the sanctuary. But the Nemean Lion did not join in the battle.

It wasn’t that Relestia did not want to join in the activity, but the lion is a sacred beast for their empire, and without a special grant anyone that harms this symbol of royalty, will be treated as rebels. Even if she wants to participate no one would dare to be her opponent, and so she promptly joined Kairos as the second non-participant.

He gave her a slight nod to acknowledge her presence, but his eyes continued to train on the competition. She looks at him in wonderment and silently giggled. The boy is unfazed even after knowing her status.

“Hehe, looks like he really met royal father without any nervousness. I thought it wasn’t possible.”

For most high nobles, such a strangely calm reaction from Kairos when facing status and power will make them instinctively feel threatened.

The concept of someone having such control is jarring because they could not understand where did his power come from, and what will he do with it?

But for Princess Relestia, who is used to people fawning over her, she felt an unexplainable delight from being recognised for who she is, instead of which family she is born in.

Her eyes focused more on Kairos than on the match before them.

“Big brother looks so handsome… Hmmm… Is it because he is so focused?”

There was a certain charm in boys who were serious, and the ten years old princess found herself going into a daydream while waiting the combat to start.

Meanwhile, the beasts in the arena stood warily apart from the others. Each sizing up the other and awaiting an opportunity to attack.

If this happened between wild beasts, a chaotic brawl would have instantly happened, with the weaker ones escaping for their lives.

But here, in a fight between tamers, no matter how small and feeble one is, compared to another, the Contract Beasts stood its ground. With the tamers guiding them, even the weaker ones have a way to fight.

In contrast, it was the stronger ones that were hesitant to attack; none wanted to expose their backs in the process because even the toughest creature does not always turn out to be the winner.

Though this is their first fight, the students know enough about the subject to make beasts with unique abilities, or specialisation, their priority. Because, very often, those are the ones that could turn the tables when least expected. Even a weak speciality could cost the opponent dearly if it is unknown.

For this very reason, rare beasts that hold trump cards that no one has, or even knows about, usually have the highest value, and it was why Lalhal had specifically asked the students to look for them.

The entire arena falls into silence as the stalemate carried on until a flicker of movement from a tiny black shadow finally started the entire melee.

The word ‘rush’ is, however, relative to the Contract Beast that initiated the attack. For everyone else who saw it begin, it was a fearless tiny turtle, no bigger than a child’s palm, which slowly crawled towards a large Snow Mountain Leopard. Lux’s Contract Beast.

The Steel Rose boy had a smirk on his face, watching the little challenger, while Alan yelled desperately, “Nooo Turtle! Come back!”

The entire class roared with laughter, even Kairos and his friends were no exception.

It was a poor display of control for a tamer, but unsurprising to happen for Alan, who had never sent his turtle to battle. The tiny beast hissed angrily and snapped at its nearest opponent without being ordered, and it triggered a savage retaliation.

The leopard immediately swiped it with a massive paw, brutally pinning the tiny thing into the ground as though it was swatting a fly. The impact caused a boom of dust as its razor-sharp claws dug deep into the earth.

Startled by the feline might, Alan immediately pulled out a talisman of protection from his robes, but a moment before casting it, Kairos suddenly appeared behind him and stopped his hand.

“Alan, calm down. It’s alive. In fact, it’s unharmed,” he whispered to Alan’s ear. It would be forfeit if the tamer assisted.

For this competition, Kairos had allowed everyone to use their Soul Perception, in hopes they could learn more in the process. But Alan, in his fright, had failed to notice the actual situation.

At this time, the great cat roared painfully, interrupting their conversation.

*RAWRRRRRRR*

It lifted its large paw, waving it frantically in the air, desperately trying to fling off Alan’s Contract Beast that had bit it on its soft dewclaw.

Nearby, the cat, Lux immediately soothed it with a series of strange sounds that have been enveloped with Ki.

“Beast Speech!” someone nearby whispered with envy, “that’s some real talent.”

Despite its tear-brimming pain, the leopard that was about to run rampant instantly calmed down. It shut its eyes and summoned a layer of blue frost on its body. The coldness spread outwards and seeped into the ground, causing ice to cover the earth quickly.

The tiny black turtle was frozen solid, allowing the leopard to pry it from its paw. Discarding it to the side, the cat watched with satisfaction as the ice grew with the pummelling temperature, encasing its tiny foe within.

This time, Alan did not try to stop the battle. He looked at Kairos with naked uneasiness, but the captain whom he trusts calmly shook his head.

Except for looking a little astonished, Kairos gestured that everything was fine.

Though both of them had their Soul Perceptions focused on the turtle, Alan could not tell the minor changes in energy as Kairos could. Although they all practice the same cultivation technique, customised for each of them, the first ‘Origin Cultivation Method’ was made for Kairos, giving him a slight advantage.

Just when Lux believed that he had defeated one of the five and found back a little of his pride, the students all heard a crunching sound from the otherwise silent arena.

*Munch munch*

The growing ice cube that is holding the turtle suddenly cracked, then shattered into pieces.

The small black turtle continued taking large bites and swallowing chunks the Snow Leopard’s ice until there are no pieces of it left. Then it greedily drew in the frost from the air with its tiny open maw. The suction force from such a small little thing nearly dragged the Snow Mountain Leopard over.

Though Lux responded at once, ordering his cat to stop its technique, the entire class had become dumbfounded, and they watched with aghast as the turtle drew out the leopard’s internal energy instead.

Half a minute passed, and only because the turtle was satisfied, did the leopard found itself freed.

Now, no longer did anyone laugh at Alan’s Contract Beast. Even Lalhal wanted to slap his own face for what he said.

“What in the holy smocks was that! This entire day is a nightmare. No, I must be trapped in a bad dream.”

The instructor slapped himself again. This time, much harder than before.

*Thwack*

"Ah, dammit! I'm still here?" The red-faced instructor slumped against the arena walls, he didn't wake up on his bed like he thought he would.