Everyone was still cheering for Aias as he returned up from the pit. When he got out the pit he was immediately jumped on by his classmates, they were crying, happy he hadn’t been hurt. Even though they had faith in him it was still a dangerous wild beast.

Before Aias in the middle of the pile his classmates had created stood Rishi waiting for him, “Well a bet is a bet, you will get my estoc and buckler. I hope you use them well!” Rishi was about to leave to get them but Aias had gotten out of the pile of crying classmates and stopped him.

“I don’t believe that’s a fair deal” Aias said with a straight look on his face. Aias didn’t want to take too much from the senior’s mistake so he wanted to change the deal as much as he could.

“No no i can't go weaseling out of a deal” but Rishi knew he was beat and simply wanted to leave the matter with as much honor remaining as possible. He wasn’t about to be known as someone who would back out of a fair challenge. He had heard before that Aias had been in the beast's cage without being attacked, so why would Aias fear going in again. He felt stupid now after he had lost his most precious equipment but he had to take the loss and move on.

“I still want the estoc and buckler, but as of now i’m only seven years old. I have no use for their strength before i’m strong enough to use them. You on the other hand! I didn’t recognise you as i haven’t seen you up close before but i know the name Rishi Lowdo. You are the second strongest student in the institute and you're going to leave next month to train as a knight are you not? You will need these if you want to be of use as a squire to one of the knights” Rishi had stopped and listened to his reasoning, he glanced at everyone listening and saw that they all seemed to agree with Aias argument. Rishi turned around to answer but was answered before he could ask. “You have till six years from now to give me the estoc and buckler. At that time you should have achieved a position where you can obtain a better weapon and i will be able to use energy”

“I accept your proposal with a small condition. You will be given any one item in my position other than the buckler and estoc, do you agree?” Rishi answered. To which Aias could only nod and smile. He had gotten a really good deal.

……….

Later when everyone was together in a classroom again ready to begin a lesson on war history the teacher forced them to sit through a four hour long lecture to then get a test which if they failed they would have to sit through another four hour lecture. This was to be their punishment for allowing a challenge like that to take place. Most likely would Rishi go through even worse as he was an older student and it is up to him to set an example for younger students to follow.

Later during the night after all the lectures were done did they find out that Rishi was forced to sit with a rock placed on his head for 6 hours, it was obviously not a normal rock, it supposedly weighed 200 kilo.

………..

The next day as Aias was sitting down to eat breakfast Rishi came by and sat next to him. It seemed Rishi wondered about Aias trip to Canastota. Aias began retelling the events that had ensued during his trip once again. Many sitting at other tables began moving closer to hear the story, they all had similar reactions to the same parts as his classmates had had.

After the storytime Aias and Rishi went to Rishi’s room to take a look at what Aias could want. His room was a lot larger than Aias and it contained all kinds of different objects, from swords made from different monsters to herbs of decent quality. Of course none of them were like the estoc as that was truly like a diamond among golden nuggets, it’s value was far higher.

It took a long time as the room was covered in treasures that hadn’t been sorted in any way but finally Aias found something he found interest in. It was a Demon Summoning Contract, it appeared to only be that of a minor demon but to him anything new excited him far more than a strong weapon. Rishi didn’t mind Aias taking it as he had no use for a minor demon, and summoning magic wasn’t his style.

Demons are creatures originally from another plain than humanity but through summonings they could come into this domain, Aias had during his trip to Canastota bought a book on demons and in it there was information on what they are, where they come from, and how summoning works. The Demon Realm unlike the Cordinal Realm, where humanity resides has very little energy running through it, as such demons take contracts with humans. The demons will take a contract, giving strength and serving the human who is bound to the contract and in return they will be allowed to live in the Cordinal realm.

Many centuries ago the demons created a kingdom in the Cordinal realm, that kingdom's ruler was very powerful and commanded many other mighty demons in his army. The demon king began trying to taking control of the world starting a great war. This war went on for more than a century until finally another demon king took the throne by force and put an end to the fighting.

However since then many have been fearful of demons and some countries even ban demons that aren’t under servitude of a human. Demons in servitude have horns, a demon will gain horns covered in rune like inscriptions upon being put in the demon summoning contract.

Aias could only tell from the contract in his hands that it wasn’t a powerful demon, though that doesn't matter as when a demon passes through dimensions it uses the power of the summoner to keep its ethereal body together. If the summoner is weak the demon will become weakened until the summoner is able to provide it enough energy to manifest properly. A weak demon won’t become stronger than it was in the demon world because the summoner is stronger, as the summoner only provides passage for the demon to enter into the world.

Aias wasn’t sure if the contract would be of use to him, and it didn’t really matter either way since he got it for free. To Aias the strength of the summoned demon wasn’t what he was after but just a simple way to satiate his curiosity for the unknown. Now that he had the contract in his hands he couldn’t help but look forward to learning to control energy, when he could channel energy into the summoning contract the demon would be able to manifest into the world and there was no way he wasn’t interested in demon kind and all the special abilities and energies they could control. Just thinking about it made his hands tingle.

………..

After classes had ended for the day Aias went to see how the Kjil was doing. As he was going to the field he met with uncle Laue. “Hello there little Aias, are you going to see how the Kjil is doing?” Uncle Laue asked inquiring about what Aias was doing up when the other children was heading of to bed. Aias nodded, there was no curfew in the institute but most children would go to bed early to make sure they had energy during the day, classes were hard and important for them so obviously they wanted to have as much energy as possible during them.

“Someone wants to meet you, come with me” Uncle Laue began walking of. Aias could only follow so he did.

The two walked into the main caretaker building where most of the caretakers resided. Aias was brought before the headmaster's office and was told to wait until permitted to enter. The headmaster was an odd individual, she was known to be very powerful but never held any position in the army, knights, magicians council or any other position where the strong reside. She had been a teacher in a school out by the border during wartime. As invaders came to attack her village in a terror attack at the kingdom, she alone stopped them. She was said to have used holy magic to seal the entire enemy armies every movement, the only ones who were able to resist where their generals and knights, which tried to fight her but her power was still immense even after sealing an entire army and so they were struck down by the holy power.

She was believed to be of similar strength as lord Meleth, however she didn’t protect the people like him, she only protected the children who were under her guidance and so the king put her in charge of the institute. No one knew anything about her from before she was a teacher by the border, she didn’t even given her name to the king. The kind of power she possessed was not something attained easily, she no doubt had a grand past.

After almost an hour of waiting outside the office Aias was finally called in. This was his first time in the headmaster’s office, looking in it he saw long bookshelves filled with different tomes and scrolls all arranged neatly and categorically, it was like a hallway of bookshelves up to a desk where a tall slender young woman sat waiting for Aias to come to her, though she didn’t seem to mind him gawking at the books, she seemed rather happy that he took an interest in the many books lined up. Aias noticed that most of the books there could be found in the library, the books in the library had most likely been copied from these books.

Aias walked up to the headmaster and awaited whatever he had been asked to come for. “I have heard a lot about you this the last week. You appear to be a combat genius, never losing no matter what you are tested in. You are also an academic, reading whatever subjects that interests you. You even appear to be kind and truthful to the ones around you” The headmaster gave her analysis of Aias then continued, “The only thing i don’t understand is how you were able to tame a wild beast without using any kind of energy or strength, and you don’t have to tell me you don’t know, i figure it’s something you did naturally because of the situation. Either way the Kjil serpent is now tamed by you so i have decided to let you have it” Aias was surprised by the headmasters sudden gift leaving him speechless, he had suddenly gotten yet another great asset for the future.

“In the case you are going out into the wilderness or when you finally leave the orphanage you can can bring it with you, there is no use in us keeping a beast we can’t use for training” The headmaster bluntly stated not caring about the gold they spent buying it.

“But shouldn’t it still possible to establish a taming contract with it? If i didn’t use any energy when taming it i shouldn’t have any connection to its soul, correct?” Aias asked, as he knew a connection between master and beast was formed with the contract.

“No it appears that the Kjil’s soul has changed, we don’t understand what has happened or how but it would appear it’s now different from other beast. No one is able to establish a connection with it but even so it doesn’t seem to want to hurt humans. Well as long as they don’t touch the Kjil or it’s you” she looked to Aias and he could tell she was speculating what it was that he did.

……….

Aias was allowed to leave the office so he headed to the Kjil’s enclosure where he sat and enjoyed the moonlight atop the rock in the comfort of the large serpents cradle like body. He accidentally fell asleep and in the morning everything continued like normal. Classes went on, training continued. Everything was the same.