Chapter 29: ♧ [V2 || Chapter 26] ♧

VOLUME 2: The Ceremony

[6 months later]

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"NOVA, YOU PIECE OF %$*#!"

A shrill scream can be heard all across the mansion hallways. The door to a bedroom burst opened and a messy haired woman came tumbling out. Her usual mischievous purple eyes were full of anger as she opened her mouth one more time.

"How dare you use the pages of my books to make your stupid nest!"

"My lady! Language please!"

From across the garden of the Alcmene, a particular golden bird was snickering to himself as he carefully laid out the torn pages into the branches of a tree.

'That's what you get for cutting down my food allowance'

The golden bird huffed angrily to himself, "How dare she claims that I've gained weight. I'm an immortal being! I can't gain weight!"

"Now, now, my lady," Marise tried to calm down her mistress. She was used to seeing the two of them argue on a daily basis. Despite her lady and her divine spirit having their differences, the two were more alike than they'd like to admit. Just last week her lady took revenge by drawing on Nova with ink because Nova refused to train an extra hour with her.

"When I get my hands on that damn bird, I'm going to pluck his feathers one by one," Evangeline gritted her teeth.

At the same time, Nova felt a shiver down his spine. "Strange. Why did I feel like something ominous is going to happen?" he thought to himself. He shrugged his little shoulders and continued to lay the ripped papers on the branch. Technically, he didn't even need to nest but this particular tree was the perfect spot to nap in the outdoors.

Meanwhile, it was chaos inside the mansion as Marise was trying to calm down her angry lady. Not to mention, she was displaying unladylike behaviour by messing up her hair in anger.

"I'll place an order for the same book, my lady. Please do not worry too much."

"Thank you, Marise. What would I do without you," she sighed. She'll have to give that Nova an earful once he shows his smug face around dinnertime.

As Evangeline walked back into her room, she brought out her notebook filled with her schedule. Similar to how she was as May, she liked to organize her thoughts through written form.

'The date for the ceremony is drawing near and I haven't mastered my magic as much as I wanted to,' she thought to herself. If she wasn't fighting with Nova right now, she would have asked him to train with her again.

For the past 6 months, Evangeline had been practicing to control her mana. She was lucky enough to get the help of Luca, the shopkeeper from town to help her, although she didn't think he would accept the idea in the first place.

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[5 months ago]

"Luca! I have a preposition for you!" Evangeline exclaimed as she opened the door to Luca's shop.

Startled, Luca dropped the piece of donut he had be holding in his hand.

"Ahhh! Luca I just mopped this morning!" Sylvia complained as she went to grab something to wipe the sugar dusting off the floor.

"Oh, sorry. Anyways, come in, Ms. Evangeline. What do you mean preposition?"

Evangeline strode forward with determination on her face. It's been a month since awakening her powers on her birthday and it seems as if her powers were different than the ones as the original Evangeline. In the novel, the original Evangeline had little powers and could only contract a minor spirit.

However, perhaps it was because the soul in the body is technically someone else, she had a different potential seeing as she did manage to contract to Nova before she even got her powers.

Ever since her awakening, her powers have been going out of control - sometimes it would be too strong for her to handle and other times, barely a smidge of her powers would come out.

That is why Evangeline decided to look for a magic tutor for herself. However, she wanted to be tutored by someone she already knows hence, this is how she came about to the conclusion to ask Luca.

"I want you to teach me how to control my mana. If you take up this job, I will pay you 5 times more than other tutors. If that isn't enough, then we can negotiate for something higher."

'And by I will pay you, I meant my father of course.'

"Oh. Sure," Luca shrugged nonchalantly.

"I knew you would say n- Wait, what?"

Evangeline blinked her eyes at Luca, who blinked back innocently. Both Marise and Dmitri were looking at them having a blinking showdown.

"I'm sorry. Could you repeat that?"

"I said sure. I'll take the job."

Evangeline tilted her head to the side in confusion. She was sure that Luca would disagree to it, seeing as he's a retired mage and that he seems to have a bad history with mages.

"I- I thought you didn't want anything to do with mages."

"You knew that and yet you still asked me to be your tutor?" Luca chuckled.

A pang of guilt hit Evangeline. She knew she might have overstepped her bounds by asking Luca but she had a strong feeling that it has to be Luca. Call it gut instinct or maybe it's just because Luca also has a divine spirit that's powerful enough to become human, she simply didn't want anyone else to teach her.

"It's true that I don't want anything to do with mages. But that's because I don't want to be associate with the ministry. But, you're not associated with them. You're different," he smiled purely.

'Ugh! The way Luca said that could totally sway a girl on her feet,' Evangeline sighed.

"Well alright then! I guess that's settled!" she clapped her hands happily. Finally she can start her preparations seriously.

"Ah, it's too late to back out now. But, just so you know, lady. Luca is one hell of an instructor. He's the type to beat all the trainings into you," Sylvia shook her head as she gave a look of pity towards Evangeline.

"Wait, what do you mean by that-"

"Oh well. Look at the time! We're going to close shop now." Luca ignored her while pushing the three of them out of the shop.

"No! Wait-!"

SLAM!

"Luca, are you sure you're up to be involved again? What if they make you go to the ministry?" Sylvia propped her head on her right hand. She's known Luca since the incident occurred so she was a little worried that he might not be able to stand it.

"It'll be fine. If they call me to the ministry, I'll just send someone in my place. Besides, she looked really determined. When I looked at Lady Evangeline's eyes, it reminded me of her. I just want to help her achieve her dreams."

Sylvia sighed deeply. He had that far away look again whenever he mentioned her. If she knew that meeting the lady was going to stir up past memories, she would have never pestered Luca to open his shop that day. They were supposed to be off on that day but, she didn't liked seeing Luca doing nothing. If he wasn't occupied, his mind tends to drift to that incident.

"Were you worried about me? Thank you, Syl," Luca smiled softly.

Sylvia's eyes widened. She slammed her hands on the table, her face turned bright red.

"HA? Who is worried about who?! DUMMY!"

Luca chuckled to himself as Sylvia was trying desperately to explain herself. It's been a long time since it happened but, maybe it was time to confront himself about his past.

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Hello everyone! Sorry it's been a while (again). Work has been piling up as usual and I was struck with a little writer's block. Anyways, Luca is back in the picture yay! I miss my cotton candy boy :3 I was thinking of putting his backstory in the next chapter but we'll see. It might be too early to get into his backstory right now (but then again, it's the second season anyways)

Also, we're finally at the second season too! This is the first time I've written more than one season heh. I may be slow at this whole writing thing but I'm determined to finish this book no matter how long it takes me. I apologise for the long wait everyone! Thank you for being patient with me :'D