Into the Palace

[Izurich]

"So... if I adjust the mana flow in casting both elements and synchronized them... harmony should be achieved, uhm... how to do that during combat... ah..." The pink-haired succubus was mumbling to herself as she took notes, her pinkish red eyes scanning the magical language with utmost attention. Rumia was quite the diligent student contrary to how she might appear, she's a rebellious naughty little brat who complains a lot sure, but when something did garner her interest, she had an amazing capacity and focus to pursue it. Other than these tomes, Aren himself was clearly an example of her tenacity. With her mind fully occupied with studying, Rumia didn't notice Komyo's footsteps up until the part where he entered the room, a tray of food in tow.

"Mmm?" She looked up from her work, then turned her head to look over her shoulder. What initially stirred her weren't the sound of jingling utensils or Komyo's voice, but the sweet smell of her race's most desirable substance, cum. "Oh, ah... hehe, that's nice..." The succubus fidgeted with her hands, delighted to have another meal cooked by Aren, she wished he'd deliver it himself though, but... after what happened, she didn't mind Komyo. The succubus was noticeably a bit meek in her demeanor, after the harsh training and relaxing bath, she didn't have the energy to keep up with her usual attitude, showing more of the true feelings, besides... she rather liked Komyo. It was not that firm though, it'd only take a couple of teases for Rumia's thinly-veiled denials to spring up again.

"Yeah, I never had cum mixed with something else until I met him. It's quite good, succubi can't never get bored with cum, but... having variations to our universal meal is not a bad idea, I admit." She put down her pen as she prepared herself to eat, her eyes roaming over the slightly pale nuggets, obviously due to a certain fluid mixed in it. "I bet it's Tenny's cum." She mused, her left hand reaching out to grab the fork, but stopped when Komyo picked it up before she did, "Eh?" Rumia raised an eyebrow, wasn't this meal just for her? She didn't know Komyo would want to eat cum-nuggets. "Ko-... e... eeeeh?!" Oh of course he wouldn't eat them, he wanted to feed her.

"N-no!" Rumia called out, giving Komyo the gradually blushing face he liked so much, "I'm not a child! I can eat on my own!" One of her cheeks puffed in annoyance, but after a while, she seemed to relax a little. "W-well... I assume you wanted me to learn the tomes as quickly as possible, s-so you want me to continue learning as you feed me, i-is that right? O-of course! That's precisely the reason, what else could it be?" Rumia huffed as she tried to fool herself with her own assumption, all the while trying to hide her happiness of being pampered like a princess, "W-well, I shall allow that." She raised her nose like a snob as she inched her mouth closer to the offered nugget, then sloooowly opened it... *crunch* then took a quick bite... then another bigger one, then the third one which completely removed the nugget from the fork, it became apparent how hungry she actually was at the moment. Chomping quietly, Rumia went back to her studying, but her mannerisms made it rather clear she was expecting another nugget.


-

As she continued studying, while being fed of course, the petite succubus noticed Komyo looking over at her notes and opened tome pages. If Komyo decided to look at her quick enough, he'd notice there was a look of apprehension on her face, like a student being nervous about how her mentor would view her work. Her lips pursed, eyes blinking, and when Komyo finally praised her, a relieved sigh escaped her lips... whichs she immediately tried to hide, "U-uhm! Y-yeah! Of course!" She raised her voice in a deliberate attempt to mask the little slip-up. Her eyes narrowing in confidence as Komyo asked his question. "O-of course! Who do you think I am? Ohoho~"

Rumia took a deep breath as she looked over the magic circle, crap, she hadn't get to that page, she was about to... until Komyo came in. "W-well, just give me a sec..." Rumia took the tome with both hands, leaning forward as she glued her eyes on it. It was painfully obvious she's nervous, her childish pride demanding her to impress Komyo, this resulted in her getting nowhere, studying the arcane arts requires a calm state of mind... which she's sorely lacking at the moment. "I-i can do this! I uh... I just have to... h-have... uhm..." Before long, steams began rising from Rumia's head as she hid her flushing face with the tome, "I... I can.. i-if... d-did you put something in the nugget? Y-you did, didn't you..." Her voice trailed off, devolving into inaudible meek mumbles and whispers.

 

[Lusterless Nova]

The page seemed to be just a tad out of her league. Yet she tried to hide that. Too bad it didn't work. Komyo could read people like open books. Useful when trading and talking to interesting people, and even more useful when a certain girl was trying to outplay him. Scooting closer to her side with his chair, he spend his afternoon with Rumia as a private teacher. The way he spoke, explained, instructed, and reacted to how she took in what he taught her gave away easily that he was used to be a teacher. This made it even easier to understand, even if there was still a long way to go.

After he helped her, Komyo went on to go outside and check on Aren, who was working just as hard on himself as Rumia did. His progress however was near none. Just as he helped Rumia, he did so with Aren. The 3 ended up becoming accepted friends, going so far that Komyo didn't tease Rumia and Aren as he originally planned. For him, this meant a lot. There would be a lot of entertainment loss after all, which was worth quite a lot when one lived alone. Still. Their deal ended up with some minor changes. One day was not enough to learn everything properly, which is why Komyo extended their stay to 1 month. Even this were record time standards for what they both tried to learn, and yet, they pulled it off.

Rumia already had learned frostfire after 3 days, and she knew it was just not enough. Something Komyo could understand, which is why his lessons moved on. Over the remaining 27 days, he taught her the secret of how to use Mana to transform. An arcane art known only by the highest ranged beings. Aren supported her as well, despite being busy himself, by helping her master a unique weapon. Using Monty's slime, she learned how to wield a slime sickle, a weapon as unusual as it was difficult to adapt to, making Rumia a little arsenal of offense for battles.

Aren's progress however was not as noteworthy compared to how Rumia excelled. He was of course proud, but also a bit jealous. Still. He learned how to use his feet for more than running. The strength he used to free himself from Rumia's ice long ago, turned out to be perfect for kicking, jumping, and running, making him even more agile. Something very important for long range fighters. His arrows also became a lot more tricky. He learned how to give them interesting properties, but listing them all would be enough to fill a book, which is why he didn't talk about them much.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

As all nice things, the month had to end someday. The 3 of them stood outside of the mansion, ready for battle. komyo attacked first, throwing one of the cards, splitting it in two, and sending one massive fireball at each of them. Aren pierced it with an arrow, just as usual, and charged ahead. Attacking with a dropkick first, followed by a downward shot, he got some distance again to make the arrow explode under Komyo, sending him up in the air with minor damage. "Rumia, now or never!" Komyo already anticipated her attack and created a protecting sphere around him, which would easily block her pre-one month strength. This was the best opportunity to see if her training paid off.

 

[Izurich]

Thirty nights of training, frostfire and whip-sickle both, would culminate in this one training session, her final exam of sorts. Though this was but a practice match, Rumia had no qualms of holding back, Komyo made sure she could go all out. The pink-haired succubus stood ready beside her elven comrade, nodding to him then at her mage opponent. "Monty!" She held out her right hand as the contract bracelet glowed with bluish light, in the same shade as Monty's color, a slime-sickle of the same color spawned at her hand with long trailing 'tail' that wrapped around her right hand. "I'm ready!" She confidently announced, no hesitation, no thin-veiled bluff, it was genuine tenacity coming from the little succubus. Without further ado, the spar began...

Rumia narrowed her eyes in deep concentration as Komyo made the first move, launching a huge fireball, big enough to simultaneously engulf three Rumias. A month ago, Rumia would widen her eyes, knees buckling, stricken by fear as she pathetically cowered in fear... but no more. Spreading her arms wide at her sides, the succubus mumbled a spell as bluish aura formed around her. "Impenetrable Glacier Wall!" in mere seconds, a high wall made out of thick sturdy ice rose in front of her, standing firm against the fireball as cold and heat battled for dominance. Rumia held out her left hand in front of her as she clenched it, "Freeze!" The ice wall literally bend as it enveloped the fireball, capturing the flaming sphere inside it. Was she going to snuff it out? Not quite...

"Absorb!" Rumia smirked as she exerted dominance over the fire, her ice fusing with it to create a huge ball of frostfire, a sphere of flaming ice, snaking out and licking the air like fire but blue and glinting like ice. By using Komyo's fireball to her advantage, Rumia cut the mana expended for such frostfire sphere roughly by half. "Komyo," She grinned wide, if only he could see it behind the huge ball between him and the succubus, "Prepare yourself!" Rumia raised her right arm up high, commanding the frostfire sphere to launch diagonally upwards into the air, positioning itself directly above the airborne Komyo. "The skies set you aflame!! Sun strike!" She brought her hand down as the frostfire ball launched a thick beam of the combined element directly down at Komyo, enveloping him in freezing heat.

Rumia wasn't finished yet, she used a blast of flame to quickly fly above the ball, then positioned herself downwards like a falling meteor. "Haaaaaaaa!" The succubus screamed as she literally threw herself into her own frostfire ball, the slime-sickle swishing around her, shaping its long tail into multiple circles surrounding her, each circle catching frostfire as she passed through it, absorbing what remained of the sphere, Rumia became a living ball of frostfre, which was currently charging straight at Komyo. The succubus would crash onto the mage from above, bringing him downwards to the ground, landing with an explosion of fire and ice, blanketing the ground below in flames and freezing it at the same time.

 

[Lusterless Nova]

In order to support her attack, Aren waited until he could predict her move. When she decided to attack from above, he launched 3 special arrows, one after another, which orbited around Rumia. Using their wind, they intensified her flames, turned into a cyclone with just a few seconds, and began to make Rumia spin, turning her slam&push into a drill attack. Enveloped in fire and ice, Komyo's shield crashed into the ground, breaking upon contact with the ground. No doubt about it. Rumia improved a lot during their time, and so did Aren. Both were better aware of their roles by now, and how to make use of the other. Rumia prepared mentally while Aren led the charge, who in turn created an opening for one of Rumia's new spells.

Frozen in Ice, Komyo remained on the ground for a couple of moments, until he decided he had been dramatic enough and shattered the ice into dust using pressure from the inside. The battle was over, and he dusted some ice off his shoulders while Aren walked closer. Komyo was still unscratched, but his clothes were a bit torn. Considering that this was one of their best combos, probably not what they expected, but still better than most of his enemies did. He did not look disappointed or angry, but actually somewhat satisfied. "Well. I have to admit that I felt that one. Not bad at all you two."

Did they maybe go a bit too far? Aren at least thought so. Granted, he was unscratched, but it still couldn't have been a pleasant experience to be hit by that attack. Keeping his friendly expression he tried the best thing he could offer to get Komyo's mood up a bit. "I'll make some lunch. Any wishes?" Over the month, not only Aren's fighting skills got better. He became a better chef day by day, and was by now the cook of this mansion, even if unofficial. Komyo, even if not in a bad mood to begin with, took up on the offer without thinking twice. "Sounds nice. Fish with sweet and sour sauce for me. And when we are at that, let's talk about your next target. Because I think your time here is up. You learned what you had to." It was sad for Komyo, but also true. His guests had something to take care of. A mission that was of great importance to the both of them. He inside, leaving the elf and succubus to talk a but. He guessed that a lot was going trough Rumia's head right now regarding Aren.

 

[Izurich]

After everything was said and done, Komyo still looked fine as ever, nope, Rumia wouldn't consider a bit of torn clothes as noticeable damage. "Myeh..." Groaning, she unsummoned the sickle then crossed her arms in annoyance, complete with pouting one cheek as she looked away. Komyo was just too powerful for his own good, at least he could fake being hurt! Wait... he did, but it was a half-assed one, 'Not bad at all you two', what kind of reply was that? He should be rolling on the ground in extreme pain, begging for death to end his suffering as Rumia stood above him, laughing maniacally like a villainess. Oh yes, it'd be awesome. "Hmph... I bet you didn't feel a thing, you're just messing with us." The look of satisfaction on his face betrayed his statement, how could someone be hurt and still look satisfied?! Only Komyo the Liar Mage.

At the mention of lunch, Rumia perked up, gingerly skipping to Aren as her wings flapped in delight, "How about 'you', darling~?" she teased, wrapping Aren's arm with both hands. She knew she would get another prod on the forehead for that, but she didn't mind. She always loved his cooking nonetheless, "I kinda want a steak with cum sauce." She licked her lips, other common men would go crazy over that one cute act, especially with her succubi aura, but these two men were apparently immune, she admitted the thought of them being homosexuals did pass her mind once.

"H-hmph... aren't you just tired of us freeloading at your home?" The succubus did what she does best, blushes included, then followed by fidgeting, "W-we... decide to not burden you anymore so... we'll be leaving." She then made her way inside his massive tree house, but as she passed Komyo, the succubus would mumble, barely audible, but the word 'thank' and 'you' were definitely included.

 

[Lusterless Nova]

As usual, Komyo could see right away that Rumia was plain unsatisfied with the result. Maybe he should have pretended to be in more pain. But that would have been a lie. There were things he would often lie about. Ingredients for his potions, who of them he liked more, his age, but this was none of these. "Oh come on now Rumia. I said that I felt it, and that's more than many other people could achieve. That's like a bronze medal in a contest." Probably not the best motivation, but the best thing he could say to her that was honest.

Upon feeling Rumia wrapping her arms around his arm, Aren turned to her. Even if she was not pleased with the result of their double attack, she still was like that. Somewhat clingy and trying to charm him with sweet words and gestures. Too bad it didn't work. Still. Good girls deserved a little reward, so he petted her head with his other arm. "You don't have to try that every day you know? But anyway. I'll make our meals special this time. I saved up some spices for today." After Rumia let go of him, the 3 parted ways for now. Komyo went to his room, Aren to the kitchen, and Rumia to the library.

As quiet as her mumble was, what he could hear made Komyo smile as he proceeded to his room. He had several things planned for them. Their training and progress (including making Aren weaker than Rumia), which path they would take to reach their destination, and most importantly: 2 very special gifts. Resting in a little box were 2 incomplete twin spellcards. It took Komyo almost all month to inscribe one of his most unique spells into them. Upon holding them in his hand, they began to glow. It was the final needed touch to complete them. What a fitting present for them. Even after they would get them, little would they know what they were meant for. Runes on the bottom read Till death do us part, and only Komyo, the mastermind behind a plan none of them could ever predict, knew what future the two of them had. With the cards in 2 separate present boxes, for one last meal, one last briefing, but not their last talk, he headed to the dining room. This was still not the beginning. The actual start was about to happen for them, and smiling as he thought about it, the Alchemist left his room.

 

[Izurich]

To be continued~