Several days had passed since Li trained the Crown Prince and the others.

The academy was finally moving into full-scale instruction.

To begin with, up until the camping training, it had essentially been an orientation period.

Class assignments had also been determined based on the results up to the camping training.

Li belonged to the class made up of high-achieving students and Lady Alberta was one of her classmates.

Most of the girls’ group that usually gathered around Li were also her classmates.

The Saint was in the same class as well.

The Crown Prince and his group were in the same class too, but they kept their distance from Li.

‘It seemed that the incident was still lingering in their minds.’

However, Li did not pay it any mind at all.

Despite being a class with its share of complications, the lectures themselves were progressing smoothly.

Because the level of instruction was high, there were not a few students who were struggling just to keep up.

It could be said that Li had been too quick to feel disappointed in the academy.

“Well then, today we’re going to summon familiars.”

The male instructor spoke in a strangely drawn-out manner.

He had a background as a former top-class adventurer.

Perhaps because of that, despite his slender build, his muscles were well defined.

His overall appearance had something suspicious about it, likely because his gray bangs hid his eyes.

“We’ll walk down to the engraved summoning circle underground.”

The male instructor began to trudge forward.

Following after him, Li and the others stood up from their seats.

One of the ancient ruins in the Amesverta Kingdom is the engraved summoning circle.

Put simply, it is summoning magic carved into the floor.

It sounds simple when put into words, but it is lost technology that still cannot be replicated today.

By pouring mana into this engraved summoning circle along with a trigger word, a being meant to become a familiar is summoned.

You can think of it as a gacha you can only pull once in your lifetime.

From creatures commonly called monsters to rarely seen spirit-type beings, what gets summoned differs from person to person.

If you can form a contract with the summoned being, it becomes your familiar.

However, whether or not you can form that contract depends on ability and luck.

“A familiar… is it?”

Lady Alberta murmured to no one in particular.

Familiars are said to be essential for becoming a high-ranking mage.

That is because there are no high-ranking mages without familiars.

Conversely, it may be that only those who can contract with familiars are able to become high-ranking mages.

This chicken-or-the-egg type of issue is a topic that sparks heated debate even in academic circles.

Incidentally, familiars were a very familiar presence to Li.

That was because when she was little, her mother’s familiar was constantly by her side.

Her mother’s familiar is a spirit beast called the Heavenly White Wolf.

In simple terms, it is a large, white, fluffy wolf.

It runs across the skies and wields lightning.

Her mother said it was an incredibly powerful familiar.

Its formal name is Marga Ritum and its nickname is Maru-chan.

When Li was young, she could not pronounce it properly.

Hearing Lady Alberta mention familiars made Li think of Maru-chan.

She had not seen it much recently.

According to her mother, Maru-chan was apparently carrying a child.

It would be born soon, she said.

For that reason as well, she had not been summoning it much.

In her previous life, Li could not afford the luxury of keeping a pet.

So if she could form a contract with a familiar, she had always thought she wanted something fluffy.

And now that opportunity had come around.

She could not let this chance slip by.

Li clenched her fist.