Free from the class, Lily started heading back to her room. She didn't really feel like going to Kaeling alone and only really planned on it because Lotte wanted to look around.

When they got back to her room, the first thing she did was ask Arakil about the spell they had just performed and why it was so simple.

The answer was one she should have seen coming: the Familiar contract itself was doing the heavy lifting. It was like having a glyph ready, just needing to add the final strokes to complete it. Doing the hard work beforehand allowed them to reap the benefits in the future.

Naturally, such a philosophy resonated with Lily, as Arakil had instilled in her the importance of preparation beforehand. She still kept glyphs in her pockets for any dire situations and had even asked Arakil to replace the ultimate shield glyph that had saved her from becoming monster bird food.

[So do you wish to continue your Waxing Wonder practice while you wait for your friend to finish?]

Lily almost jumped on that, but then paused to think. Eventually, she shook her head.

"I want to do something about Lotte's defense spell, if that's okay?"

[Not an issue. I've already made the adjustments that should resonate quite well with her. You just need to transcribe it so she can read it, since despite gaining more freedoms since becoming a Familiar, that restriction sadly still holds.]

"Okay. I guess I can close my eyes or something and trace it?" Lily suggested.

[Why would you ever need to do that?]

Lily blinked a few times, not expecting Arakil to reject it.

"So that I don't read the spell? You said you don't want me learning them."

[Lily… I trust you more than enough to keep your word. You don't need to do something as foolish as that.]

Lily blushed, feeling a bit embarrassed. "I just… I thought it would be safer. Or something."

[If anything, it would be far more dangerous. What if you miswrote one of the incantations? You'd be putting Lotte potentially at risk.]

"Oh…"

[Your heart is in the right place, and I'm glad you were that dedicated to keeping your word. But, like I said, you're my apprentice and I trust you fully.]

Lily nodded happily.

[The bigger question would be, how do you want to explain the discovery?]

"I thought I could just say that you or I found it contained within your book. Thanks to Rose, she already believes that's how I summoned you."

[I supposed that will do. Then we just need to age the ink through heat and light, and that should do it. Fortunately, until we remove the page from my tome, it is indestructible, so you can be pretty rough with it.]

"Oh… I didn't even think of that. She would have been very confused if it were freshly written."

[I guess you could say that I read it to you and you transcribed it, although that feels a tad more unbelievable in my opinion. Why would a specter know how to read magic?]

Lily giggled. "When it's the ghost of a legendary archmage, of course!"

[I suppose. Although I'd think we'd be better off not mentioning my ties to the arcane for now.]

Lily nodded; she was still not willing to drop the whole truth just yet.

And so she began providing Arakil with plenty of ink, so that he could write out the spell for Lotte. He was especially thorough, making the page look almost like a historical document that belonged in an art exhibit.

He flourished the edges of the page, wrote out the incantation in a few different phonetic forms, and even added a few descriptors to help with the imagery at the bottom.

[I do believe I've made what could be interpreted as an ancient scroll.] Arakil said proudly.

Lily nodded, fully agreeing.

"It looks beautiful. I'd totally believe this was some treasure found in a dungeon, or from a lost wizard's tower, or something even more epic!"

[I'm glad it had the desired effect. If you wish to repeat this, I'll recreate similar templates to make it more believable that these came from the same collection.]

Lily nodded and then began the slow and steady work of tracing it out. While she didn't need to worry too much about messing up the "master copy" as Arakil could replicate anything stored within his pages, she still gave it the care and attention it deserved.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

After she was finally done replicating it, they now just needed to make it look as if it hadn't been freshly inked. Per Arakil's suggestion, Lily cast a small flame spell and brought it close to the pages. She still found the situation a little bizarre that the pages remained unblemished by the flame, but it was definitely having an effect on the ink.

To finish it off, they removed the page from the book and she cast Moonlight, directing the beam of light directly at the page with maximum intensity. According to Arakil, light exposure would help make it look aged, and this was Lily's brightest light.

After everything was done, while it didn't look ancient, it at least didn't look like it was freshly penned. Lily smiled happily at the result and gave the page back to Arakil to keep safely between the confines of his book.

Lily had half-expected Lotte to arrive by now after all the time she had spent, but Jade must have been giving her some trouble. Lily somewhat regretted succeeding on both spells the first try, even though Arakil had admitted that he would have only played along if she cast it correctly in his eyes.

I keep drawing more attention to myself, though. That can't be good.

[By the way, who do you think we should gift a spell to next?]

"So soon? Shouldn't we at least wait till Lotte has learnt this one and seen that there's no fallback? Or something?"

[I agree, although I like to be prepared, and it gives me something to occupy myself with.]

"Uh… I would have said Rose since she's my big sister, but at this point, I wonder if she even needs it. Maybe Thomas, since he's trying to learn lightning, and he's basically still at the starting line?"

[A good suggestion, although I admit I was curious to start researching spells for the dual bloodline. Pegasus and unicorn. Some records used to call such creatures Alicorns.]

"Uh… Does Hana need help? She's been doing really well on her own. Plus, she's in a different faction."

[I suppose you're right. A pity…]

Lily frantically shook her head. "No, you definitely can. I just think we should focus on Lotte and Thomas first. Once they are safe, then we can expand to my other friends, right?"

[Excellent. Then I'll start working on a basic Fulgomancer package, which should be easy enough. I'll also start looking into some more spells to complement the basilisk bloodline. She has enough offense, and presumably defense now, so perhaps some utility?]

Lily couldn't help but smile. She was glad to see Arakil having so much fun theorizing and putting his vast knowledge to use. She could imagine him loving being a teacher and sharing his arcane wisdom with the world.

Now that that was sorted, she began her own practice. She still needed to cast the spell without repeated chanting, as that was the bare minimum expected of her as the apprentice to the legendary Archmage Arakil.

***

Lily had lost track of time as she was fully immersed in her routine practice, but eventually, there was a knock on the door. She opened it, and as expected, it was Lotte, with a particular green lizard notably missing.

"I finally did it," Lotte said, sounding like she'd gone through hell and back.

"That's great!" Lily cheered, inviting her inside.

"Great isn't the word I would use. That damn green lizard must be a gremlin. I swear, she was delighted by the chaos and frustration she was causing me. I wanted to rip out my hair."

"That bad?"

"I fed her so much Mana I thought I was going to pass out. But she still didn't want to go home," Lotte complained. "I genuinely thought I was going to fail; the headmaster even gave me snacks to give her, and the gluttonous creature gobbled them up and still refused!"

Lotte sat down on the edge of Lily's bed and collapsed backwards, spread out like a starfish.

"I was begging. Pleading. I checked that every word was correct multiple times with the headmaster. And then, I swear, she just got bored and finally went away.

"Did you not need to call her back?" Lily asked.

"I didn't want to," Lotte admitted. "I recited the chant multiple times in front of the headmaster successfully and then begged him to let me go. I don't know if he took pity on me or what, but he finally let me go."

"Were you the last one?"

"Thankfully not. Although the others weren't dealing with a chaos gremlin, they were screwing up the incantation, or their Familiar was starved, or they hadn't even named it yet. Stuff like that."

"Huh… I'm shocked they were that far behind."

"The headmaster wasn't too pleased about it. Anyway, I'm letting Jade stay in time out for now. I'm hoping it will teach her to be such a troublemaker."

"Did he say anything about that? Or have any advice?"

"Nothing that I think would fit for me. He just said to try getting closer to her and perhaps try adjusting her diet a bit. I mean, I feel like I've been treating her well, and she eats everything, so I'm not sure how I'm supposed to adjust that."

"Something you haven't fed her yet, maybe?"

"A big maybe," Lotte said, sighing deeply. "I've got no idea… I wish I had a book Familiar."

"Speaking of which… I might have some good news for you."

"You're going to let me borrow Arakil as my shield?" Lotte asked jokingly.

Lily shook her head and gestured for Arakil to come closer. He did and opened his book, which Lily reached in and pulled out the "scroll" they had just forged.

"Arakil was looking through the book, and we found this," Lily said, holding it out for Lotte.

Lotte sat up and gingerly reached over, taking the page and staring at it.

"Petrified Skin?" Lotte read aloud, sounding quite confused. "Is this a curse or something?"

"No, it's a defensive spell!" Lily quickly objected.

"Are you sure? Because it certainly sounds like a curse…"

"I'm positive. I can take it back if you aren't interested," Lily replied with a grumpy pout and stretching out her hand.

Lotte pulled it away, out of reach of Lily's grasp. "Now let's not get hasty. I didn't say I didn't want it… I'm just cautious, you know?"

"Well, if you read more than just a cursory glance, you'll understand it's the real deal. That's assuming you haven't slacked off on your incantations. There are some ones I don't know in there, but the basics I do understand, and the pattern indicates it's a defensive spell."

"Hey, while I'm not as big of a bookworm as Thomas, I'm also no musclehead like Arthur," Lotte said defensively. She then held the page out before her and began giving it a more thorough read.

"Wait… I think you're right?"

Lily sighed, rolling her eyes.

"And this was just lying around in your book? What the heck?" Lotte asked.

"I told you it's an ancient grimoire from a dungeon," Lily answered. "Who knows what else is hiding inside it?"

"Right…" Lotte replied, sounding a bit suspicious. "So that wasn't just Rose making a poor cover story?"

Lily frowned. "I promise you this book is full of spells."

It was technically the truth.

"Damn… then why haven't you been going through it like crazy? Couldn't you find some really amazing stuff?"

"I can't on my own. I need Arakil to help me, and it takes him some time," Lily explained.

"And you found this for me?" Lotte asked.

Lily nodded. "Well, Arakil did the—"

Her explanation was cut short as she was assaulted in a tight hug from the other girl.

"I-I don't know what to say. Thank you both!"

"Why does everyone try to squeeze me to death…?" Lily groaned.

[The consequences of being a cute bunny, I suppose.]

You're not helping! Lily mentally complained, hoping Lotte would stop before she needed to take defensive action, like she had with Rose.

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