Ning arrived at the palace as the sky was turning orange. The setting sun reminded him how late he was, but that did not matter now, did it?
The guards let him inside without any hesitation and Ning went to talk with the king for a bit. After that, he soon reached the princess who had been waiting for him since waking up this morning.
"Teacher!" she shouted and ran up to him. "Why are you so late? Where's Slimy?"
"Slimy? Oh, right." Only then did Ning remember that he had promised her yesterday to have her meet the slime again.
"He's with his people for now. You can meet him after you pass a little test of mine in front of your parents," Ning said.
"A test? What sort?" she asked.
"You'll see soon," Ning said and brought her to the palace hall where the King had been expecting them.
"Come, let's see how our child is doing," the King said as the princess was made to walk in the middle of all the people.
She felt a little embarrassed and tried to hide behind Ning, but Ning pushed her forward. "It's okay. They are all here to cheer you," he said.
"Cheer me? For what?" the princess asked.
"For when you pass the test," Ning said.
"Are you sure she can do it?" the King asked, still a little suspicious as not even a month or two ago, the princess didn't even know how to use her spiritual energy.
"I'm confident," Ning said and turned to the princess. "You need to summon the strongest beast that wants to come to you here."
"Strongest beast? Okay," the princess nodded and closed her eyes.
The King, the Queen, the court officials, Joann, and even Ning held their breath as they waited for the princess to summon something.
They waited for a while before the princess was finally able to bond with a beast to summon.
Ning wanted to look at the summoning circle in front of the princess to see whether she succeeded or not, but his attention was stolen away by the princess's hair which changed color.
The dark red hair slowly bleached out as it turned to light red, before becoming orange.
Ning thought that was where it would stop, but the orange hair then paled even further before ending up a golden yellow.
The princess was now a blonde summoner. She was three-seventh of the way towards becoming a strong summoner.
At the same time, the beast was summoned and Ning finally turned toward it.
The beast looked like a leopard or at least it was in that category. It was a feline beast with a clouded pattern on its body that was black.
The rest of the fur that wasn't black to Ning's surprise entirely red.
The leopard beast had 3 tails, that kept moving around. It growled as it looked around the room.
"They are friends," the princess said to the beast and it quieted down.
Ning continued looking at the beast and saw something weird on its back. Hidden in its fur was a patch that was covered in dragon-like scales, which were fully crimson in color.
The only part of the beast that was anything other than red or black, were its eyes which had a yellow iris that stared at everyone.
The king looked at the beast closely and was surprised that it did look like his daughter had succeeded. Still, to be absolutely sure, she had to do a couple of things.
"Make the beast move around you," the King asked his daughter.
"Okay," the princess said jovially. "Kitty, can you move around me?"
The leopard growled at being called kitty, as it understood what it meant through the connection they now had with each other.
Still, it was bonded to follow her commands, so it did as asked.
It moved around her, doing absolutely as little as it could in the process.
The people around the room nodded when they saw that. She was indeed in control of the beast, and from the looks of it, it was a strong beast too.
However, there was one more thing it needed to do.
"Have it use some skills," the king said.
The princess thought for a bit as she went through the information she had on the beast's skills.
"Oh, Kitty, use blood shadow," she said.
The leopard growled and suddenly the scales on its back straightened up like the quills of a porcupine in danger.
When it opened, blood suddenly poured out from its back and pooled next to it. In another moment, the blood suddenly turned to look just like the beast.
The king looked in awe. It was a doppelganger technique, that used the blood element.
He was shocked to see that his daughter had summoned something that could use the elements.
Which meant it was higher than a Rank 2 beast. The Blood Leopard that she had summoned, was a Rank 3 beast.
"Amazing," the Queen was the first to speak. Not only did she find it amazing that her daughter's hair was already golden at just 6 years old, but also that she had already become a Rank 3 summoner.
She could only imagine what heights she could reach if she taught her some of her own knowledge.
"Truly amazing," the king said as well. Then, everyone in the room started cheering for the princess.
The princess was a little surprised by the cheer and nearly backed away. But Ning caught her by the shoulder and patted her head.
"Good job," Ning said.
"I did good?" she asked.
"Very good," Ning said. He then brought out a piece of paper from his storage and brought it to the king.
"I suspect you will have to sign that now," Ning said.
The king looked at the paper and realized what it was. It was the quest he had put up in the Summoning Circle.
Since Ning had fulfilled it, his job here was done.
"You have indeed done what you had come here to do," the king said as he signed the paper. "You no longer have to teach my daughter anything."
