Bookbound Bunny

While Lily was internally panicking, Rose entered the bedroom and closed the door behind her. Lotte was looking expectantly, clearly wanting an answer.

Stupid Rose and her big mouth!

"There's a reasonable explanation for that…" Rose began to say awkwardly.

"Cool, I'm all ears," Lotte replied.

Oh gods. I hope she isn't going to put her foot in her mouth again.

"And that reason is… Lily is a genius… and she summoned her Familiar before even coming to Regarth!" Rose blurted out.

Lily's eyes widened, and she nearly choked when she attempted to swallow with nothing but a dry mouth.

Thankfully, Lotte didn't notice Lily's reaction as she was also taken aback by such an unexpected declaration.

"She… summoned a Familiar before coming here?" Lotte repeated, as if not believing her own ears.

"Yup! It was written in the book, and then Lily followed it and summoned him!" Rose replied, talking quickly and finishing off by pointing at the book.

Lotte's brow wrinkled as she frowned, clearly thinking hard. "I guess that would explain why Lily feels miles ahead in the Familiar department. Not only can Arakil already talk, but he actually behaves and listens, not like any of the other first years—I mean, look at Jade or Yona."

As if reacting to her call, the lizard rolled over and fell off the bed, landing on the floor with a loud thump.

"Exactly!" Rose exclaimed, snapping her fingers. "It's because they've already spent time bonding and growing. Even Puff can't talk yet."

Rose snapped her fingers, and a flash of flame erupted in the center of the room. Lily let out an "eep," and Lotte gave a little hop backwards. The flame, however, was swallowed up and revealed an extremely rotund froggish creature. Its skin was pinkish red, and it resembled a water balloon about to burst, its stumpy legs barely touching the floor.

[Oh! Is that a salamander? I don't think I've ever seen one so healthy and vibrant before, even the ones living in volcanoes—it must be extremely well fed.]

Lily's curiosity got the better of her, and she ended up speaking out loud. "A salamander? Aren't they sleek, blackish-gray amphibians?"

"What? Puff is definitely not an amphibian. He's a mighty fire spirit!"

[Ah. I see you've misunderstood. There's a mythical creature known as a salamander, and it shares the moniker with the common amphibian. These creatures eat fire, so it's no wonder Rose managed to attract one. Likely the same situation as Lotte.]

The "mighty fire spirit" proceeded to roll towards Rose, who picked him up and gave him a squeeze. He let out a squeaky, high-pitched noise as the air escaped, but seemed to be otherwise enjoying it.

"Jade, maybe we need to cut back on your food before you look like that," Lotte commented. Jade let out a grumpy snarl in return.

"Suddenly, your letter is making a lot more sense," Lily said to Rose. "And here I thought you found a boyfriend or took a little brother to replace me."

"Not at all, why would you think that? I was very clear in my letter.

"Large portions of it were redacted!" Lily whined.

"Ah damn, I guess they really do make sure we don't leak anything… that sucks," Rose grumbled.

"Uh… sorry to interrupt, but can we get back to the elephant in the room?" Lotte asked.

"What more is there to say?" Rose asked. "Lily summoned Arakil before coming here."

"You implied that he helped her with magic," Lotte pointed out.

"Oh… well, obviously he was attracted by her unique bloodline. Just like Puff, here was attracted to my fire," she said, and held out the spherical creature towards Lotte.

"I guess what you're saying does make sense… although it's still a little far-fetched in my opinion."

"I mean, that's a dungeon artifact for you. Would you expect anything less?" Rose countered. "Where else do you think Lily learnt all her glyph work. I'm in my second year, and I've not seen anyone do the stuff she has."

Lotte was nodding along, it seemed somehow, against all odds, Rose was managing to convince her. Lily still felt like she was sweating profusely and quickly wiped clammy hands against her clothes.

[I'd probably go along with Rose's explanation for now. If Lotte refuses to drop it, or brings it up in the future, then perhaps you can tell her the truth?]

Lily found herself reluctantly agreeing. While she wasn't too happy about establishing a new friendship on a lie, it was pretty close to the truth. Now she just needed Lotte to secure her secret.

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

"Please don't tell anyone…" Lily mumbled nervously.

In response, Rose also gave Lotte a bit of an intimidating glare. Lily, however, was furious by the gesture and thumped a balled fist against Rose's arm, entirely ineffectual, but the dragon halted her gaze.

"Naturally, of course," Lotte replied to their relief. "I mean, even if I wasn't, I don't think anyone would believe me? I don't know how you did it, but you must have fooled the Regarth examiner as well, so I'd just sound like a crazy person. Or maybe even trying to badmouth the first Lagia mage? Plus, I hadn't even heard of Familiars before coming here, so it would be like me saying you baked a cake through intuition before entering baking school or even knowing what a cake was."

"Thanks, Lotte," Lily replied, looking immensely relieved.

"Sure… besides, I wouldn't want to upset my first friend here. Plus, I'd also be shooting myself in the foot if I want to get through alchemy lessons."

"Oh damn, you actually took that class? It had so many dropouts between year one and two," Rose commented.

"It can't be worse than anything I went through with Miss Camilla," Lily replied confidently. Lotte, on the other hand, looked a few shades paler.

"Oh yeah. You're probably fine thanks to that old witch," Rose replied. "I'm dying to hear all about what I missed while you were away!"

"Um… I'll head to my own room then, maybe we can meet up later for food?" Lotte suggested.

"You can stay if you want," Lily offered.

"No, it's okay. I'll let you two catch up, I wouldn't want to get in the way of sisterly bonding."

"Cool, thanks, Lotte," Rose replied, giving a friendly thumbs-up. "Sorry for being a little territorial."

"Oh, it's fine. I'm suddenly thrilled that I'm not allowed to participate in duels," she said, picking up Jade and heading towards the door.

"Huh, you aren't allowed to duel?" Rose replied curiously.

"Yeah, my magic is only for killing monsters, unfortunately," she replied. "So I'll leave it to my fellow Maranix to fight the mighty dragon," she winked.

"Maranix…" Rose muttered with a frown, then turned to Lily. "What faction did you pick? Please tell me it's Terravix!"

"Uh… I'm also in Maranix," Lily answered cautiously.

Rose let out a stream of expletives and even stomped her foot angrily. "I can't believe it, what rotten luck! Why are we in opposing factions? That's so unfair!"

"Hey, it's okay… nothing is stopping us from hanging out outside of school events and stuff, from what I'm told," Lily said, trying to coax her into calming down.

"Maybe I can put some pressure on the principal to change it… I know it's never been done before, but maybe I can twist his arm."

"Um… I'd better leave before I become an accessory to an assault—talk later, Lily!" Lotte said and hastily retreated from the room. As soon as the door closed, Lily let out a sigh.

"I think that went pretty well, all things considered," Rose said, gesturing at the door with a thumb.

"I don't. I can't believe the very first time I ran into you, you blabbed my secret. If only you weren't in the dungeon when I arrived, then this could have all been avoided."

"I'm sorry, Lily," Rose replied and patted her gently on the shoulder. "I get too excited and my mouth runs when I do. You know I'm a big dumb dragon."

"It's fine… Well, no, it's not, but I think Lotte is nice enough not to blab."

"In my defense, I had no idea you'd make Arakil your Familiar. I was expecting you to summon a furry friend or something equally cute and cuddly, like Puff here," she gestured at the rotund creature by giving it a little squeeze while bobbing it up.

Lily sighed again, for what felt like the umpteenth time today, and shook her head. "I can't do summoning magic. It's one of the downsides of attuning my Mana Core to Astral."

Rose blinked a few times while tilting her head from side to side. "You… attuned to Astral? I don't know what that is, but it sounds cool."

"I basically gave myself a bloodline. Before I did that, you could have considered me a human in terms of magical capabilities," Lily explained.

"Oh! That makes a lot of sense. So it was one of the ones with downsides, which are usually the best, personally speaking. Like I'm laughably bad when it comes to ice spells, but nobody can even hold a candle to me when it comes to fire magic."

Lily nodded. "I lost some rather inconsequential magic, except for summoning. But I had no idea the first test would be to summon a Familiar."

Rose clicked her tongue in annoyance. "It's too bad they redacted my letter, or you would've known and maybe could have chosen something else."

"By the time your letter arrived, I had long completed my attunement. I even went hunting at night!"

Rose broke out into a tremendous smile. "That's my little sister! I knew you could do it."

"Well, it's thanks to you and Arakil. If you didn't help me with that first ritual, I wouldn't be here today."

Rose bumped Lily's shoulder with her elbow. "Hey, you put in plenty of effort yourself there, we were just there to lend a helping hand!"

Arakil's floating book bumped her other shoulder.

[Rose is correct. While I provided you with the instructions, it was you who gathered the resources and made the preparations. Do not diminish your accomplishments.]

"Thank you both. I'm a lucky rabbit."

"I can't believe he's floating now," Rose said, pointing at the book.

"He can also see and talk, too."

"Really? Hello, you old b—I mean, hello Arakil!" Rose said.

[Greetings, Rose. It's good to see you for the first time, I can see nobody was exaggerating when they called you a dragon.]

"Arakil says hello, and that he can see why everyone calls you a dragon," Lily relayed.

Rose frowned. "I thought you said he could talk?"

"Just with me for now, but maybe others later."

"Wait… It's a secret talk that only you can hear?"

"Arakil called it telepathy; he talks into my head, although it's entirely one-sided for now. Hopefully, when we modify the Familiar bond a bit, I'll also be able to talk with him mentally."

Rose let out a whistle. "That's pretty handy."

"I'm sure Puff helps you too," Lily said, pointing to the pink orb.

"You mean besides cuddling?" she chuckled. "Yeah, he can burp up blobs of fire, which is great for taking care of monsters in the dungeon. It's great having this lil guy watching my back down there."

"Ah! The dungeon… I want to see it," Lily said excitedly, bouncing on her feet.

"It's honestly pretty great. When you get permission to go down, I'll have to give you a tour one day. I've got a pretty swanky place down there."

"So Aura wasn't joking about you living down there?"

"Ah, I see you met our resident bird brain already," she smirked. "Yeah, I've got a homebase setup down on the twentieth floor, which means I don't need to come up unless I'm forced to. It's honestly pretty great, way better than my own room here."

"But… aren't dungeons dark, dank, and infested with monsters? How the heck can you live in one?"

"Oh sure, most of the dungeon is exactly like that, but not if you find a secret room!" Rose said excitedly. "Of course, you have to be very lucky to find one, or buy one off another student, but once you get one, you basically have a private room all to yourself, and only you have the key. My one is average-sized, but the location is ideal, so I don't really mind. Some of the older students even work towards finding big ones for private clubs, it's really great!"

Lily was silently in awe as she heard all of this. Never could she have imagined all of this was happening in the dungeon, and now she was really looking forward to venturing down there herself.

I can't wait for my dungeon class tomorrow!

That thought brought Lily to a quick realization, as she turned to Rose with a small but cheeky smirk.

"It's a bit late now, but were you allowed to tell me all of that?"

"Shit!" Rose blurted out—again.