Ning then took Tessa back to the school, directly into her grandmother's room in the library.
"What? Don't scare an old woman like that," Verina said when she saw the two of them arrive out of nowhere.
"Grandma!" Tessa hugged her grandma and her grandma hugged her back.
"So? What happened? I thought you were taking her to the island. Why did you come back? Did you not get to enter?" the old woman asked. "I should have told you that the headmaster wouldn't allow that. He is kind of an asshole in that way."
The old woman shook her head as she remembered the previous headmaster who had been defeated by this current one and had their place taken away.
"No, grandma. Look, this is Sylph."
The jingling spirit slowly peered its head from behind Tessa. "Sylph, this is my grandmother."
"Wah! You did it? Did you get yourself a spirit? Wait, why is your hair not changed?" The old woman was confused, to say the least.
"I dyed it to hide, grandma," Tessa said. "Look."
The air in the room moved a little, flipping the many books and stray papers lying around.
"You really did it," the old woman got emotional all of a sudden. "If only your parents were here to see that. They would be so proud."
Tessa got emotional with her grandmother too.
Ning sighed as he watched the two family members cry with each other.
"Ma'am, I won't be returning to the school after this," Ning said without hesitating.
"What?" the old woman was confused.
"This is everything you need to know about summoning in and out," Ning said. "Please take this as my farewell gift."
"You... you really aren't going to come back?" she asked. "Where are you going?"
"Here and there. I don't know yet," Ning said. "But I will just roam around. I will come back to visit, but for now, it's goodbye."
The old woman nodded and thanked Ning for everything he had done for her and her granddaughter.
Ning smiled and disappeared.
The grandma and granddaughter remained in the room, with massive smiles on their faces.
* * * * *
"Ah, you're finally back," Saphandra said. She had waited alone for nearly half an hour before Ning had returned.
"Sorry about that. Had to spend some time explaining to the little girl's parents what had happened," Ning said. "I also had to tell them to make the princess's new quarters away from the palace, so that even if she does go out of hand with her powers accidentally, it won't cause much damage."
"Ah, right," Saphandar said. "What were her powers again?"
"Did she not show you? It's fire," Ning said. "She can use fire now. I wonder how hot her fires can get. Hmm, I will have to teach her later once she grows."
"Alright, let's go to the snow region. I'm curious," Saphandra said.
The two of them teleported away and arrived around the same region where Ning had brought the princess.
He brought out some warm clothes for Saphandra to wear and then fell to the floor to place with the snow.
The two enjoyed each other's company while Saphandra laughed the brightest laugh she had given out in a long time.
"I haven't heard you this happy in... actually never," Ning said. "This is the first time you feel... free."
"I haven't had much reason to smile for a while now," she said. "Especially with the annoying people that keep staring at my hair."
"I did say you should have dyed it," Ning said.
"I know, but for some reason, it feels like dyeing my hair is my way of avoiding responsibility," she said.
"Responsibility? Of what?" Ning asked.
"Responsibility for my planet, for the many people that died, little blue, and then also me," she said. "I couldn't save them."
"I see," Ning said. "Right you did mention something about being in a military force or something like that."
"Something like that," Saphandra said.
The two of them stayed there for a while, playing with the unending snow, and sleeping in the snowfall.
Only after a long time had passed did they finally stand up.
"Is there anything left to do even?" she asked. "Do you want a spirit for yourself?"
"Uhh... probably not. Although I don't see how that could be a bad choice," he said.
"So you do want one," she said.
"Spirits can survive even when they are out of their planet, right?" Ning asked. "Like what would happen if I took a spirit and left for a plant with no spiritual energy."
"Hmm, it should be fine. You won't get to use the skills I suppose," she said.
"What about the spirit itself? Would it have any problem? I remember little blue being non-expressive back in Genesis," Ning said.
"No, that was because Genesis completely suppressed every power in the area. Since spirits are made up of Spiritual energy, they won't work well in the suppressed areas, but in other areas, they should be fine even without the presence of Spiritual energy," she said. "Although, the prolonged effect might be something you should ask the system."
"System?" Ning asked.
<You can create Spirit Space, similar to Beast space, where you can keep your bonded spirit from the different world.>
<Spirit spaces are special and they can remain there for a while to gain back any capabilities they might have lost.>
<However, that will actively cost you about 100 Million energy an hour if they are to heal in there.>
"Oh, that's... a few billion a day doesn't hurt me now, right? There will be some problem if there are multiple of them, but I guess that's enough for now," Ning said.
<Would you like to buy Spirit Space for 15 Million Energy?>
"What the hell? That's cheap. Awesome!" Ning said. "Buy it."
<Confirmed.>
He felt a space open inside of him. By now, there were 3 different spaces inside of him, and in the near future, he would have to start opening the fourth one.
"Let's go get me a few spirits," Ning said with a bright smile.
