Chapter 28.1 – Tea in the garden – part 2

Taisetsuna made a huge effort to sound calm, but Takanari felt Taisetsuna squeezing her little hand and flinched, trying not to scream from surprise as Taisetsuna spoke, “He is not, and I am not available to be taken by you or anyone that sounds or resembles like you. You are too pretty for a boy. Were you born a girl and suddenly decided to be a man, or you always looked like that?“

“Impressed, are you? Well, that is not a surprise. I am the one-day-to-be Viscount Robert Keskula, and I am yet to meet a woman that doesn’t become infatuated by my beauty or my speech. I take great pride in my natural beauty, and I go to enormous lengths to keep looking as good as I do. I don’t mind if you are a commoner or not, because I just love Cat-kind women and their insatiability in a bed.”

“Yeah, I don’t like Humans that much in my bed. You would probably faint after ten minutes and I would end up pleasing myself to be satisfied. I guess you are used to Human women that rarely share a bed with a man or lie to you by saying you were magnificent.“

Taisetsuna then stared at Robert’s groins and frowned, “I don’t see too much of a lump over there, and you know what they say, Humans are only half of a Beast-kind, so unless you have Beast-kind blood in your family, I don’t see how in God Raluth’s name, you would be able to do anything of note on my bed, or the bed of any Cat-kind girl. Now, if you excuse me, I see Princess Mere signalling me to approach, and it’s better not to make her wait.”

Taisetsuna walked forward after winking at the surprised Diana Olesk that was completely blown away by the way she spoke with the most gorgeous single Noble around, but while she was frozen in her spot, Robert Keskula wasn’t, and he grabbed Taisetsuna’s left wrist, and spoke with a cold voice, “Where do you think you are going? You can’t speak like that to me!”

While smiling, Taisetsuna let go of Takanari’s hand and, with no visible effort, lifted Robert Keskula’s fingers from her wrist, one by one, making him turn red from the effort as he tried to keep his hold. “I just did, pretty Robert. And there is nothing you can do, you see? While you go to enormous lengths to look pretty, I have been training my body and my muscles since I learned how to walk. So, unless you want me to break every single bone in your body, you won’t ever touch me again, understood? You will have better luck with Diana here than you would ever have with me, so don’t waste your time with me and knock yourself out with her. Judging by the way she stared at you when you first spoke, you won’t have any problem convincing her to join your bed. Make her wear some fake Cat-kind ears and tail because that’s the only way you will have a Cat-kind in your bed with your tiny willy.”

With a quick wrist movement, a crack was heard, and Robert Keskula felt a sudden pain in his hand, because of the twist he suffered. Taisetsuna was careful enough not to break anything, but to someone like Robert, who had been pampered since he was born, it felt as if he was about to die. He bit his lower lip to stop the scream, because he would rather die than admit a girl hurt him, especially with so many young Nobles around him.

Taisetsuna held Takanari’s hand and walked in the direction of the tables where the Princess was talking with the women.

Behind her, the girls were shooting daggers at her back, the boys were still wondering what just happened, and Robert Keskula was gulping as he mumbled in a low voice, “God Raluth, that woman is amazing…”

One of the young men heard him saying something, but couldn’t actually understand what he said, and hesitated, “Robert… you… said something? Did she…“

The light blond boy forced a smile and answered, “That’s a frisky one, right? I pity the guy that falls for her! It’s probably better if we go meet the Princess as well. I want to have some tea and calm down before I do something hasty and slap that Cat-kind round butt to make her learn some manners.“

Then, one girl asked with a frown, “It’s just me, or the tip of her tail is glowing? Does she have Magic focused there? For what?”

Robert suddenly remembered that inside the Throne Room, he saw that Taisetsuna had Magic surrounding the tip of her tail ever since she entered, and that puzzled him at that time.

As they were all approaching the tables, he kept on staring at the way that Taisetsuna moved, with such certainty in her footsteps, that to him, it seemed like she was about to conquer the World in the next second.

Such confidence and such precise movements were so much different from the girls near him, that he realized that compared to her, they all seemed hesitant to take a step, as if they were afraid to fall and make a laughing figure of themselves. Even if they were all lifting the sides of their dresses as they walked, they didn’t look half as confident as Taisetsuna, and even their constant giggling began to annoy him, especially because he could perfectly hear from the table next to his, the way Taisetsuna was genuinely laughing when Takanari was answering the questions of the Noblewomen near the Princess, and soon, the Princess and the other women were all laughing with her, making the little Takanari to relax and to act more at ease.

When Taisetsuna reached for a cookie on the table, her tail lifted, and Princess Mere saw the glowing ball of Magic surrounding the tip of her tail. Since she never once saw a Cat-kind doing that, she asked, “Taisetsuna, why are you gathering Magic on your tail? And how do you do that and still manage to eat and talk? I can’t do that, nor can any of my Royal Mages because of the amount of concentration one needs to focus on gathering Magic without using it! That’s an amazing stunt you are doing!”

Taisetsuna looked back as she waved a little her tail, and spoke, “Oh, I barely notice I am doing that. This was Nozo idea. He asked me how I used my Magic, and why older Mages were stronger, and I told him it had to do with the years they had been using Magic. He then said I should practice gathering Magic without using it so that my concentration and my control over my Magic increased little by little.”

“Isn’t that dangerous, gathering Magic without using it? I was always told we should gather Magic and use it to do something so that we didn’t lose the ability to use Magic!”

Taisetsuna shook her head. “So far, I don’t feel any different. The first time I tried gathering Magic without using it, I got so tired that I slept for an hour, but after that day, I began to practice each night before going to bed. I got tired, but since I was going to sleep, it didn’t matter. Over time, I managed to learn how to do tasks with Magic gathered in one hand, then I began using my tail so that I had my hands free. Now I can walk around all day with Magic gathered on my tail, and I just need to focus on keeping it there.”

“And did you notice something different? Did your Magic increase or you are now able to control it better?“

Taisetsuna opened her hand and made a small Fireball over her palm. The Fireball changed shape and turned into a pyramid, then a cube, and then went up and dispersed at a few meters over her head, blowing a warm breeze on everyone’s hair. The Princess made a slight frown and asked, “Don’t you feel tired with all that effort to change the shape of the Fireball?”

“No, not at all. In the beginning, yes, it was tiring, but not now. I even noticed that the amount of Magic I can now gather and control is way more than I used to before I started to practice every day.“

“Interesting… Can you show me how much you were able to use before you began to practice?“

Taisetsuna doubted if it was a good idea showing what she could actually do, but then she noticed the Guild Master nodding at her with a slight smile, and his mouth moved, with the words ‘trust her’, making her decide. She got up and raised one hand after winking at Diana Olesk, who was frowning at her. A thin line of fire went from Taisetsuna’s open palm to ten meters high and focused into a ball nearly two meters wide. She then looked at the Princess and explained, “Before, this was the maximum I could gather and control, and to do this, I always felt like fainting because it was awfully tiring.”

The Princess asked while looking up at the Fireball that was rotating with flames moving as the wind blew, “That is nearly the size of what my Royal Mages can do and it is impressive enough considering your age. And now, after so much training?”

Taisetsuna concentrated and the Magic on her tail moved along her body and joined the new line of fire that she was now shooting with both hands raised high. The Fireball increased its size, and when everyone on the ground was covering their eyes from the intense light and feeling their bodies burning from the heat, Taisetsuna made the Fireball go up ten meters more while continuing to increase its size. At each meter in diameter the Fireball increased, it went up five meters more.

Everyone around her was now looking at Taisetsuna in amazement while she was sweating from the effort and taking deep, slow breaths, but not looking as tired as she should be, considering she was creating such an enormous Fireball and controlling it. Then, Taisetsuna spoke, slowly, while looking up, “I think… this is the safest size I can make it... I can probably make it bigger, but I may faint from the effort.”

Then, from her tail, a thin line of Wind Magic went up and surrounded the Fireball. Princess Mere gasped at what she was seeing. Taisetsuna was not only making and controlling the biggest Fireball she had ever seen, but it was now surrounded by Wind, which was dispersing the Fireball in all directions, making it go smaller and smaller with each second. When it finally disappeared, everyone was in silence.

Taisetsuna was panting with her hands on her knees, trying to recover her breath, and they all heard the voice of Diana Olesk breaking the silence. “Big deal! Any Fire Mage can do that!”

Princess Mere shouted, and everyone jolted, “Are you freaking dumb, girl? I am not sure if all my Royal Mages working together would be able to do that! And they are the country’s most powerful Mages! And she did it alone! And controlled it! And then used Wind Magic! And controlled it to make the Fireball disperse! Do you have any idea how impossible all that is? And she can even use Healing Magic! Did you ever hear of a Cat-kind able to use three types of Magic? Because I didn’t! Or use two types of Magic to this level? Taisetsuna, how did you do that? That’s impossible!”

Taisetsuna lifted one finger while still panting, “One… second… Princess… Uuf… Uuf...“

She then got up and took a couple more deep breaths before answering, “That surprised me as well. I had no idea I could do such a big Fireball. Do you think something like that will be enough to pass the tests at the Academy, Princess?”

“That’s for sure! Even if you just apply a low level of the three types of Magic you are able to use, it would be enough, but if you do that, it’s guaranteed! Guild Master, please swear to me that you will do anything within your reach to have Taisetsuna and Nozomu in your Guild! They will be a great asset to a Party of Adventurers in our country!”

“I am on it, Princess Mere, rest assured. With them and their Unicorns in the mix, I already have a bunch of Adventurers that want to invite Taisetsuna and Nozomu to join their Parties, but I would rather have them enter the Academy and learn everything they could before joining a Party or making one on their own. I can also tell you that following Nozomu’s advice, I created a ‘Free Quest’ as a new rule in the Guild, that for sure will be to your liking, if you want to hear my explanation.”

While the Guild Master was explaining to the Princess and the Nobles what the ‘Free Quest’ was, Diana Olesk kept on frowning at Taisetsuna, who was taking long gulps of tea, and with Takanari talking to her with a big smile on her little smiling face.

In the middle of the young Noblemen, Robert Keskula was staring at Taisetsuna, unable to avert his eyes. One young Noble next to him put one arm over his shoulder when he noticed where he was looking, and asked, “What’s the matter, Robert? Fell in love? That would be funny, you, in love with a girl!”

“Shut up, you fool. Do you realize the implications of what she just did? I am a Fire Mage, and I can’t control a small whirlpool in my hand and make it change shape, let alone make a Fireball that big! That was freaking awesome!”

The young Noble smirked, noticing the way that Robert’s eyes were glowing, but kept in silence.