Chapter 407

407.

That evening.

Leo returned to his dorm room after finishing his departmental schedule.

At the round table in the dormitory, five familiars sat in a circle, each holding two cards and playing a game.

“Hmph. It seems I am the winner this round.”

Kiran said proudly, betting a pile of candy and chocolate stacked beside him.

“Don’t kid around, you silly fairy.”

Fiora scoffed and accepted Kiran’s bet.

As the two exchanged fiery remarks, the other familiars had already discarded their hands and were watching the situation unfold.

Eventually, five cards were laid out on the floor and it was time to reveal the hands.

“I have a full house.”

“Hahaha! I have four cards! Tubby chick!”

Kiran laughed obnoxiously as he reached for the pile of candy and chocolate stacked on the table.

At that moment, Fiora, who had just lost a week’s worth of snacks, looked miserable.

“Hey, fairy prince.”

The Great Spirit of Light, Rael, glared at Kiran with fierce eyes.

“Why did you call?”

“Are you messing around with magic?”

Boom-!

“Kyaaaa?!”

After stomping on Kiran’s hand, Rael reached for the cards.

“I bet everything that you swapped the cards with illusion magic. What do you bet?”

When Rael touched Kiran’s cards, the numbers changed.

Fiora’s eyes turned violently when she witnessed that.

“Cut off his hand! Cut off his hand!”

Watching the overly excited Fiora scream, Elshi sighed deeply.

“Fiora, you shouldn’t use such harsh words.”

“Cutting is too much, but hitting… Hah… Just thinking about it is thrilling… Cough-!”

Elshi rolled her eyes at Arti, who was mumbling nonsense instead of stopping the commotion, and jabbed her small fist into her side.

After getting hit in the side, Arti rolled on the floor, groaning in pain, but seemed to enjoy it.

Seeing this, Leo had a mixed expression on his face.

‘If summoners saw this, they would surely weep, right?’

And he would surely curse the harsh reality.

In fact, Leo was still not accustomed to seeing his familiars behave like this.

5000 years ago, the Vow Keeper of Lissinas, the Flame Emperor, along with other Great Spirits including Katariu and Luminous, were immensely majestic beings.

Silrod, who was Luna’s Vow Keeper and a fairy prince at that time, though young, was not as obnoxious as Kiran.

The Great Spirit of Light was not such a twisted and fierce character.

‘Could it be my fault?’

He wondered if he had a significant influence on how his familiars turned out, but then shook his head.

“Albus was a noble Pegasus. She wasn’t a pervert like Arti.”

At least among Leo’s current vow keepers, there was one normal one: Elshi.

Elshi effectively played the role of preventing Leo’s familiars from going berserk.

Looking at it from a conclusion.

‘It’s not me who’s strange; it’s the familiars these days that are weird.’

Leo firmly drew the line and approached the familiars punishing Kiran.

Kiran, who was squirming on the floor after foolishly messing around, flinched as Leo reached out.

He grabbed Kiran’s wings, lifting him up as if catching a sleeping bag and said,

“Who led this illegal gambling operation?”

“The stupid fairy.”

Fiora pointed at the unconscious Kiran without hesitation.

Clicking his tongue, Leo carelessly brushed Kiran aside onto the table and said,

“Though it’s hard to say, you guys are technically my familiars, right?”

The familiars stared blankly at Leo.

“How about keeping a little dignity?”

“A phoenix as graceful and polite as that is extremely rare.”

Fiora puffed out her chest and said with a feigned solemn expression.

Watching Fiora, Arti replied,

“You didn’t look elegant at all when you rolled around due to weight gain.”

At those words, Fiora yanked Arti’s hair with all her might.

“Ow!”

Arti let out a snort at Fiora’s assault while seeming to enjoy it.

Seeing this, Leo sighed deeply.

Given that it was already publicly known that Leo was the Vow Keeper of the three major familiars, requests had been continuously coming in from the Department of Summoning for Leo to study the three major familiars.

However, Leo could not grant that request.

‘If I show them this, it would be too pitiful if the fantasy is ruined.’

While Leo’s vow keepers were abnormal, it certainly did not mean that all three major familiars were weird.

Leo did not want to shatter the dreams of the budding sprouts.

While the familiars were behaving disgracefully, Leo said,

“Anyway, get ready to go out.”

“Ready to go out?”

Elshi tilted her head in confusion.

“Yeah. I have a little test to conduct. We are going to the Island of Beasts.”

“But it’s already curfew time. It’s a prohibited time to go to the Island of Beasts.”

The Island of Beasts is within the territory of Lumeran; however, strictly speaking, it is outside the school.

No matter how much Leo was the Student Council President, going out of the school during curfew would be a violation of school rules.

From the start, even if Leo is the Student Council President, entering the Island of Beasts without permission was itself a problem.

At Elshi’s words, Leo replied.

“It’s okay. We can go secretly.”

“As the Student Council President, shouldn’t you set an example for other students?”

Rael opened his eyes with a squint.

“Of course you should set an example.”

“But you’re saying you’re going to break the rules?”

Fiora also squinted her eyes together with Rael and asked.

“If you don’t get caught, it’s not a crime.”

At Leo’s indifferent remark, Rael sighed, giving an expression of helplessness.

Of course, Fiora blinked her eyes, presenting an expression that was not acceptable.

“Do you think that makes sense?”

“Of course it doesn’t.”

“Then why aren’t you protesting anymore? My mother said that the Great Spirit of Light is the one who protects the justice and order of this world.”

“Yeah, but I’ve grown old enough and learned how to compromise with reality.”

Rael patted Fiora’s head and started preparing to go out.

Hearing Rael’s words, Fiora nodded after pondering.

“So in the end, if we don’t get caught, it’s not a crime?”

“Absolutely not.”

Unable to bear it, Elshi could only let out a deep sigh.

*

Waiting for Leo upon his arrival at the Island of Beasts was none other than Mel.

“Welcome, Leo. Everything is ready.”

Upon Mel’s words, Kiran tilted his head.

-What do you mean everything is ready?

“I have something to test.”

The place where Leo arrived was a vast clearing in the center of the Island of Beasts.

It was the innermost area, rarely visited by students or staff.

Just as Leo’s familiars wore intrigued expressions at the mention of an experiment.

“Arti.”

At Leo’s call, Arti opened her eyes wide.

“Me?”

“Yeah.”

“Are you going to test me, Master? Is it going to hurt?”

Seeing Arti ask with hopeful eyes, Leo replied.

“Well, I can’t guarantee that.”

Arti showed a disappointed expression at Leo’s words.

Shaking his head, Leo said,

“Transform into your original form.”

“Yes.”

Arti turned back into the body of a Pegasus.

Leo climbed onto Arti’s body.

Seeing this, Mel cast a spell.

With a powerful force, a barrier was created that outsiders could not perceive.

As Leo pulled the reins, Arti soared into the sky at an incredible speed.

Crackle-!

Lightning crackled around Arti’s body.

-What are you trying to test?

“This time, I’m going to test one of the rewards obtained from conquering the Hero’s World.”

-Reward from conquest?

At the moment Arti made a puzzled expression.

Crackle-!

-……?

While running through the sky using Leo’s magical power, Arti felt a sudden tremor from the energy emanating from Leo.

-What is this…?

It was the power of Pegasus.

Stronger and purer than any Pegasus out there.

Pure white lightning enveloped Arti’s entire body.

Crackle-!

-Aggghhh?!

As if being electrocuted, Arti shook from the storm of lightning that engulfed her body.

Along with that, Arti’s power began to amplify.

At that moment, Leo withdrew his magical power.

Sizzle-!

Smoke rose from Arti’s body.

“Hey, are you okay?”

Leo asked cautiously.

The power Leo had just used was the essence of lightning obtained as a reward from the recent conquest.

The essence contained the power of Albus, the last pure white king of the Pegasus and Leo’s vow keeper.

The essence itself was infused with Leo’s magical energy.

Initially, Leo had attempted to summon the power of the Pegasus using this essence of lightning, but the essence did not respond to Leo’s will.

And through multiple experiments, he discovered that it responded to Arti’s contract.

‘To be precise, it seemed to respond to the Pegasus I contracted with.’

Although Leo had the essence of lightning, he was not a Pegasus.

The essence of lightning had once been the power that dwelled within Pegasus for generations.

Thus, it was inherently impossible for a human like Leo to use it.

‘But I thought it might be possible to reproduce the power of the pure white king in the contracted Pegasus using this essence of lightning, and it seems that was indeed the case.’

The problem was that even if Arti was a Pegasus, not just anyone could accept the power of the pure white king.

It was a power granted only to selected noble beings among the Pegasus.

Arti, though undeniably a powerful Pegasus with deep experience from living for a long time, seemed to struggle to fully accept the essence of lightning.

“Are you alright?”

-What… what is this?

“It’s the essence of lightning.”

-The essence of lightning… the power of the long-lost king.

Arti’s voice trembled.

5000 years ago.

The fact that the power of the king, which was passed down as a legend, had been revived made Arti pure-heartedly thrilled as a Pegasus.

“Any Pegasus contracted with me can use the power of the pure white king… but it seems there’s quite a backlash.”

-Indeed. It was definitely a pain that was on another level compared to everything I’ve felt until now.

“I think it would be best to stop here, as using any more power could strain you…”

-This is the best!

“……”

-The great power of the pure white king combined with this electrifying pain. Ah, it’s the best.

Seeing Arti genuinely rejoice, Leo looked up at the sky.

‘Worrying was foolish of me.’

Crackle-!

-Kyaaaah~

As Leo used the essence of lightning, Arti let out a delighted scream.

A moment later.

Having pushed Arti to her limits, Leo descended to the ground.

“I’m so happy.”

Arti muttered softly as she laid sprawled on the ground.

Seeing this, Mel approached.

“Did you identify Arti’s limits?”

“Yeah. This will be incredibly helpful for future battles.”

At Leo’s response, Mel smiled brightly.

“I think it’s a great fortune that Arti became Lord Leo’s vow keeper.”

“Why?”

“There probably wasn’t another Pegasus who could withstand the essence of lightning like Arti.”

It was certainly a power that could only be used by someone who found joy in pain, and not simply through discomfort.

Arti lay on the ground, twitching, and grinning widely.

Elshi pointed to Fiora’s eyes and said,

“You shouldn’t watch that.”

“Why?”

“It’s harmful.”

Seeing that conversation, Leo let out a deep sigh.

“If I look at this, I might cry.”

“Who would?”

“My old vow keeper.”

Leo thought of Albus.

She would surely have wept, lamenting that pure power had been sullied.