Chapter 54: Challenges for talented
She was a good student.
Aside from the little play classes that the two of them had in their free time, she was also learning a lot of things from some of the best teachers within the family.
As the mothers watched the two of them, they wondered how they were so happy when they were together.
But then again, they were also somewhat similar in the sense they have always been isolated from the common masses.
Still, both of them were children that belonged to this house. Children that were precious to them.
"Lesson three, and the most important one." He gently grabbed her hand and looked at her with a smile.
At the same time, he gave a thumbs-up signal to the ladies that were watching them from the back.
He was the one who suggested they come down here to watch them play today, but they did not know the reason for it.
They thought he just wanted them down there. But, having all three of the ladies here wasn’t a normal thing for him.
He liked teaching her away from their eyes so that they don’t get in their way and the little Alex was always happy when she was with him.
Today, however, was a little different.
"You have to start getting to know your bonded spirit now, little. So..."
The hand that he had grabbed still had the demonstration glove on them.
"It might hurt a little. Try to hang in there, ok?"
-Oooooooooooooooooong!
He gathered the surrounding Mana with the gloves and then, he used the Bond Expression on the little girl directly.
"Huh? Huh...?!"
-Duck.
With a sudden burst of negative emotions, her eyes became hazy and while still watching the bright eyes of her brother, she found herself falling asleep.
"Big... brother...?"
At the same time, a storm befell on the innermost garden of the Sungrade castle.
-ZAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA...!
A storm of fire, at that.
"WHAT?!"
The ladies were stunned but moved quickly.
-Ooooooooooooong!
In an instant, Lady Markeet pushed her sword inside the ground and activated the inner defense barriers of the castle, sealing off this particular garden area.
"We have to get the others!"
Lady Emilia targeted all the creatures present in this garden with the help of her (SR-Rank) creature of Fay descent.
"Are they alright? What did that boy do this time?!" Lady Isha was shocked to see the flame storm.
She could not understand where this colossal fire came from, but it was of a bright red color with a hint of some gold inside.
It was no normal fire. It did not burn the trees and the grass either... but it was hot.
So much so that the ladies could feel the immense strength of that fire even from this distance.
"It wasn’t Prism who did this." Lady Markeet, having the most experience of a battlefield, knew what was happening right now.
"It’s a spirit’s protective retort... a very powerful spirit’s power at that!"
She looked at the flames directly while covering her face.
The two ladies, doing the same, watched the storm of fire that had engulfed the two of their children.
"What do we do now?!"
"Nothing!"
Lady Emilia was panicking already. However, Lady Markeet knew there was nothing they could do in the first place.
"That’s Alex’s original spirit’s power!" She had deducted the cause of the storm as well.
And, she had also deducted why Sam provoked this spirit to the point of such a reaction.
-Shaaaaaa...
The storm of fire did not last long, but it most certainly left its marks on the garden.
There was a huge crater where the two of their children were standing just a moment ago.
"You saw that, right?"
And from inside this crater, Sam walked up with the little Alex, still conscious, resting in his arms.
"Are you two alright?!" Lady Isha instantly ran towards them to see if they were hurt.
Thankfully, from the looks of it, both of them were fine.
Sam’s skin was a little red because of the heat, but he was still fine. On the other hand, Alex didn’t look good.
"The spirit used up a lot of her energy. She must be in a dehydrated state." Prism was not worried when he handed her to Lady Isha.
Then, turning towards Lady Markeet, he saw the terrified look in her eyes.
"We should have started teaching her sooner." She knew what had just happened.
And she knew what could have happened if it were some other time where the rest of them weren’t around and Alex knew nothing about her powers.
"It’s not too late." He was certain after seeing it in person.
The spirit that originally contracted with her was of the highest grade. In the rankings of the spirits, it was the same as a legendary (SSS-rank) beast.
It was a powerful entity, and to contain this powerful entity, Alex needed to be much stronger.
But, the mothers had not realised that fact until this moment.
"She’ll do well even without me around if she has you all."
But now that they had seen the truth, now that they knew just what kind of potential their youngest child had, they knew how badly she could get crushed under all that potential.
And they knew how much harder they needed to work to prevent that from happening... especially without the person that she was the closest to right now.
"She will be devastated without you around."
He had not told her yet, but he was going to leave shortly after her birthnight in a few months.
She might not see him again for a long while once he leaves, so he didn’t want their goodbye to be a simple one.
"She’ll be fine."
He glanced at her with a smile on his face, and then looked at his hand that did not have the gloves that he made with great difficulty on them anymore.
The flames destroyed those gloves.
And with them, they had destroyed almost two months of his great efforts.