Tale of Discovery

Chapter 132: Underestimation ; Annual Familiar Showoff

"Here," I say while raising the arm my new familiar is attached to, "Meet my new little familiar."

Seeing the snake latched to my arm, Henrietta hesitates a little before speaking up,

"Are you sure that's what you summoned?"

Giving her a dubious look, I reply,

"Of course."

Henrietta doesn't say anymore, but that's not the case for those who are accompanying her.

"Is that the prince's familiar?" one girl mutters.

"It looks so weak" another girl adds.

I'm tempted to teach them a nice lesson on being respectful and not judging others by their appearance, but it seems like that's unnecessary.

The snake that was on my hand suddenly lunges at one of the female knights.

In response to this, the girl instinctively turns the hilt of her weapon, which is surprisingly a gun, towards it.

Why didn't these appear within my database? Is there something that I've yet to find out which is causing this?

Setting those thoughts aside, I watch the snake suddenly disappearing from where it was and appearing right behind the girl.

Not being able to react in time, the girl's nape gets bitten.

As retaliation, she shakes the snake off, resulting in to speedily slither back to my arm.

Before I can properly think of what just transpired, the girl that was bitten screams loudly while holding her head.

"Clarisse!" one of the girls shouts with concern apparent on her face.

The next moment, the bitten girl, Clarisse, grabs something wrapped on her back and unwraps it, revealing a double-edged sword.

Before the other girls can make sense of what's happening, Clarisse swings her swords at a girl that's closest to her.

Fortunately, the girl instinctively steps back and barely dodges the sword.

Alerted, the strict blonde-haired girl says,

"Don't falter! She's probably under some effect by that vile snake!"

While Clarisse continuously slashes at the girls, they respond by doing nothing other than dodging, most likely hesitating to attack their former comrade.

All of a sudden, Clarisse throws her sword into the sky, surprising the girls.

The sword spins in the air a couple of times before falling right on top of the blonde-haired girl's head.

Seeing this, the girl attempts to dodge it by simply sidestepping, but what she doesn't expect is that Clarisse would dash toward her and throw a punch.

Caught off guard, the blonde-haired girl gets punched square in the nose, causing her to stumble backward a few steps.

Clarisse takes this chance to kick the girl's head sideways, ultimately knocking her out.

A few seconds later, Clarisse's body limply falls to the ground.

I suddenly feel a tickle on my arm.

Examining it, I see my snake happily rubbing its head against it once again.

Right, I should investigate my new partner's capabilities. First, I should see if it is intelligent.

"So, cute one," I say, "Are you capable of understanding what I say?"

Turns out that the answer is yes. The reason for that is because the snake begins to 'nod' its head while facing me.

I use my finger to stroke under its lower mouth before asking,

"Do you have a name?"

The snake responds by 'shaking' its head.

"I see. So, I'll have to name you."

Taking a moment to think of a suitable name, I realize that I don't know its gender. I extend two of my fingers near its mouth and say while twitching my index finger,

"Are you a male or a female? If you're a male, press your head against this finger, otherwise, press it against the other one."

Understanding what I'm saying, the snake presses its head against my middle finger, indicating that it's a female.

"Female, huh? Then, I have the perfect name for you."

Raising the snake a little, I look at its glowing red eyes and say,

"From now on, your name is going to be Aurora."

{Familiar (-) has been successfully named Aurora. Updating system status}

As I'm about to check out the system status, the blonde-haired girl suddenly exclaims,

"Prince Wales! What's the meaning of this?!"

Moving my head to face her, I nonchalantly say,

"Your friends over there insulted my cute little familiar. I don't know what they were expecting to happen, but it's pretty obvious that they will have their asses handed to them for their actions."

The girl seems like she wants to rebuke me, however, Henrietta raises her arm as a gesture for silence and says,

"We don't have much time to waste. They're wall waiting for us back at the stage, so let's go."

Agreeing with her, all of us accompany Henrietta and the platoon to the stage.

--

After finally reaching the stage, I find most of the academy's pupils sitting on several long rows of seats.

On the stage, Jean is standing with a paper pamphlet in his hand, which I assume contains the order assigned to the participants of the competition.

Creating a large illusory space, I make my over to Jean and say,

"Add me to the competition."

Surprised by my words, Jean looks at me for a few seconds before asking,

"Your Grace summoned a familiar?"

In response to his inquiry, I raise my arm and roll my sleeve up, revealing Aurora who is still fondly rubbing her head against my arm.

"Are you sure about this, Sir Wales?" Jean asks after a moment of hesitation.

Nodding my head serenely, I say,

"Just do it. Oh, right. Make sure that I'm the last one to appear on stage."

"I understand."

Leaving him to his own devices, I dispel the illusion that prevented others from seeing me and regroup with Gabriel, Aruru, and Ddraig.

"What are you planning?" Ddraig asks me the moment I reach them.

"Something entertaining," I reply.

Before Ddraig can ask any further, Jean who is still on the stage exclaims,

"Welcome everyone, to the Annual Familiar Showoff."

In response to his words, the crowd begins to cheer loudly.

"Today, we have several students who have summoned spectacular familiars and wish to display their capabilities.

"As you're all aware, the winner of the competition will be awarded by an important individual."

After saying this, Jean raises the arm holding the pamphlet and points somewhere behind the crowd, resulting in everyone turning around.

"The Crown Princess of Tristain, Henrietta!" Jean exclaims.

The crowd cheers once again, much louder as Henrietta waves at them.

After a while, they all calm down and shift their focus back to the stage.

"Now, let the first participant get on the stage."

---

More than half of the participants have shown off their familiars by now.

As I'm watching the participants make a joke of themselves, I abruptly sense something gigantic on the other side of the academy.

Directly making use of Clairvoyance, I investigate what's going on.

There, I see a robed woman standing atop a large golem that's gradually closing in on a structure.

"Aruru," I say, "Head over to the other side of the building and keep a keen eye on a woman riding a giant golem.

"Make sure to remain hidden. Also, if you're exposed to danger, make escaping your top priority."

"Okay, Father!" she happily exclaims before dashing to where the golem and the woman are at.

The reason that sent like this is, despite the risks is because I can check on her state and the location she is now and then through our connection.

Anyway, I'm curious to know the identity of this robed woman.

Making use of my Clairvoyance, I shift my sight just enough to see her face properly.

Lo and behold, it's none other than Longueville. Looks like the opportunity has finally arrived.

Leaving that matter aside, I focus back to the stage. The moment I do so, I find Tabitha riding a blue dragon all over the sky, dazing the crowd.

Since when did she have a dragon? I don't recall seeing such a thing during the summoning

It's a little problematic, as if I were to win, I need to daze the crowd even more by performing an extraordinary feat.

Suddenly, an idea pops up in my head.

---

"And that was miss Tabitha and her dragon," Jean says as the crowd begins to applaud loudly.

"Now, for our final act, we have the Crown Prince of Albion!"

Upon hearing his words, the crowd freezes up for a few seconds before getting riled up more than ever before.

As my turn has finally arrived, I slowly walk onto the stage while waving at the crowd with a small smile on my face.

Once I'm at the center of the stage, I stand still and wait for the crowd to calm down.

It doesn't take long before everyone quietens down and tentatively observes me.

Coughing twice to clear my throat, I say in a loud and clear voice,

"My dear noble friends,

"Today, I will be teaching you all an important life lesson!"

Intrigued by my way of doing things, Jean watches me with an amused expression, while the crowd is softly whispering between each other.

"Earlier, I met a few fellows that committed a mistake so grave that they were shamed before their patriot!"

My words pique the curiosity up even more, as they stop whispering and just focus on me.

"Without further ado, I shall begin!"

Raising my left arm, I use Pyrokinesis to cover it in flames before calling out,

"Aurora!"

The next moment, the fire spreads around evenly before dissipating and revealing Aurora who's coiled around my arm.

This results in the crowd to get overwhelmed with surprise as they begin discussing this matter among themselves.

However, that doesn't last long as I pull my arm back before hurling Aurora into the air.

The crowd gasps in response to the sudden turn of events as various shocked looks appear on their faces.

Before they can realize what's happening, I crouch down before using a great amount of force to leap into the air, resulting in extensive cracks to spread across the stage.

In less than a second, I am right beside the airborne Aurora. I use my body to block the spectators' before exclaiming,

"Now!"

In response to this, Aurora immediately slithers into the sleeve of my jacket as a bright light appears in front of me.

Soon, the light fades away, revealing a blue dragon much larger than Tabitha's.

I grab Tiamat's wing and use some force to throw myself over to her back while shouting,

"Fly!"

Receiving my order, Tiamat begins flapping her monstrous wings, producing a great amount of wind. This results in the crowd below to be bewildered as a strong gust of wind blows their hats and other belongings away.

After a few more flaps with some support from my Vector Manipulation, Tiamat easily soars into the sky at an incredulous speed.

Once we're high enough, I tap Tiamat's back twice.

Understanding my intentions, Tiamat stops rising and maintains the altitude we're in.

"I never thought that you were the type of person to enjoy the view of the land from the sky," a loud voice resounds all around me.

"I'm not," I respond, while amplifying my voice, "I am doing this only to see if anything interesting is nearby."

After I've said, I do exactly as I said by looking all around me for anything interesting.

In less than five seconds, I find something fitting my criteria for 'interesting things'.

A giant floating city. What else could be more interesting than that?

That's a matter worth looking into at a later interval.

"Tia, skydive," I say.

In response to my words, Tiamat stops flapping her wings and pulls them toward herself, which results in her body gradually begin accelerating toward the ground.

Once we're a few dozens of meters away from the ground, I pull Tiamat back into my Code and make use of Flight to break my fall.

There, I stand before the crowd with my arm raised, showcasing Aurora who's moving her head from side to side.

"This, my noble friends, is why you shouldn't judge someone or something according to their appearance!"

As if my works just awakened them from a beautiful dream, the whole crowd rises to their feet and begin cheering madly.

Turning to face Jean, I nod once.

Realizing what I meant by my action, Jean moves forward and exclaims,

"And that, ladies and gentlemen was Sir Wales and his familiar, Aurora!"

Amid the crowd's cheering, I think of the possible effects my actions might have on everyone.

First, these students, who will most likely be acting upon my orders in the future, will take this lesson to their hearts.

This can come in handy, as they will be less gullible to possible ruses my enemies might resort to.

Second, this will raise their respect for me to an all-time high, basically cementing my position as a great prince in their minds.

And most importantly, Osmond will now know whose side to take if things start getting awry.

Honestly, I don't need him all that much except for the information that he will be able to provide me in the future.

I could simply read his memories at the moment, but that could lead to repercussions such as Osmond hiding from me, which effectively reduces a great source of information.

Besides, the little information he might have at the moment is nothing compared to what he might obtain in the future.

Anyway, I shift my focus back to reality.

Henrietta is currently slowly making her way over to the stage while accompanied by the golden-haired girl who has a disbelieving expression on her face.