Ning returned back to the arena where he was staying and went to the cafeteria.
Saphandra wasn't anywhere to be found, so he had to eat his meal alone.
He would've probably gotten to eat back at the palace, but since everyone was so worried about the princess, they just let him go.
Ning sighed as he ate the piece of fish in his place. "Ugh! Fish again," he thought. Being a world with only islands, the cuisine of the world mostly revolved around fish.
'Can't they get some chicken or something sometimes? Just because this is cheap… sigh,' he shook his head as he ate.
"Hey, I need someone to help me build some houses. Can anyone help me?" someone spoke from way behind Ning.
Ning didn't respond and saw no one in the room respond either. He continued eating his mediocre fish. However, he was too fed up with the fish, so he simply created some chicken instead and ate it.
He went back to his room afterward and very quickly fell asleep.
* * * * * *
Joann walked through the dark corridors of the palace late at night as she walked towards an underground room at the bottom of the beach.
The room was studded all around with tiny little pearls that stole spiritual energy from the water that flowed right above them.
In the center was a woman that sat there reading a book as her body naturally absorbed the spiritual energy that was pulled in.
Due to the spiritual pearls never being full, the light there was very dim. Still, the thousands of pearls helped fully illuminated the room.
There was a knock on the door and the woman finally stopped reading for once.
"Come in," she said and the door opened.
Joann walked in and suddenly got on one knee. "Your highness, you called for me?" asked.
"Joann~" the woman said softly. "I heard there was an incident today regarding my daughter's teacher. Do you have any information for me?"
"Yes, your highness," she said.
"Oh, there was information that you saw fit to hide? Go on, tell me," the woman said with an intrigued face.
"This man, this teacher of your daughter's that your husband found. He's incredibly powerful," Joann said.
"Oh? How powerful?" the queen asked.
"For one thing, he is absolutely a Rank 6 summoner, if not more. The monster he summoned today was also fully listening to him despite it being so strong," Joann said.
"Well, those are impressive, but not particularly much. Especially the monster thing. Anyone can get a monster to follow their commands so long as they are ready to give up a lot of spiritual energy that they won't gain back for a while," the queen said.
"That's the thing, mistre— I mean, your highness. Even after summoning the beast, he kept using other skills that are hard to come by without summoning multiple beasts."
"He could control objects with thoughts, he could travel to a faraway location not just by himself, but also the people and beasts around him. He could fly in the air without worry, and finally, he also had quite a lot of strength," Joann said.
"I heard about the last part," the queen said. "Apparently he won against my husband and everyone in a test of strength. Being able to summon so many powers… just what kind of monster is he?"
"What should I do, your highness?" Joann asked.
"Hmm, check just how strong he is for now. Aside from that, we need a definite answer on what his character is like. Whether he is trustworthy or not."
"We don't need people that we can't trust, now do we?" the queen said.
"Then I will start testing him," Joann said.
"You will do no such thing. Just do what you've been doing until now. As for the teacher, only look at him from the sideline," the queen said.
"I see," Joann said. "I will do that then, your highness."
Joann stood and turned to leave.
"Wait, before you leave. Can you give me a full pearl? You have some right?" the queen asked.
"Yes, your highness," Joann brought out a glowing pearl that was brighter than all the other pearls around her.
"Here," Joann simply flicked the pearl from in between her thumb and index finger.
The pearl shot out like a bullet from a gun, but the queen caught it in midair easily and looked at it.
"Thank you. You may go now," she said.
Joann nodded and returned back to her fake task of being a maid to the princess, and the real task of being her guard. One that wouldn't hesitate to kill any enemies that would come for her mistress' daughter.
The queen looked at the Pearl slowly losing light as it was absorbed by her. 'Well at least my speed is still fast,' she thought. However, even after the pearl lost its spiritual energy, the queen still felt empty.
That was what she had been feeling for a very long time now.
Ever since she had been poisoned and her legs mangled, she was forced to stay in this situation where she couldn't move from her location and had to stay in one place until someone came to get her.
The reason she needed spiritual energy was to give it to this beast of hers whose powers she had summoned. She had promised it that she would give it her spiritual energy until it reached the next rank.
The beast in turn promised her to heal her leg and body.
It wouldn't be long now, only a few months before the day would come when she would have her legs back.
After that, she would have to train a bit to go back to being the same way she was in the past.
Then, she would attack her enemies, those that made her waste so many years in this backwater city.
However, her enemies were strong and she needed people for that. Fortunately for her, it seems she had found the perfect person to ask for help.
'A teacher huh? I can rope him in easily,' the queen thought and went back to reading her book.
