…

  “You want to make contract with Spirits?” Emilia asked Subaru who nodded and replied “Yes, I can only use Shadow and Earth magic, however if I make contract with the spirits, I will be able to use all types of magic”

  Rem who was standing behind them remained silent, it has been barely few hours since her attempt to murder Zero.

  Suddenly Reina appeared in front of them.

  “Reina! That Divine protection of yours is sure handy” Subaru said with slight envy, Reina had returned to her mansion to have the breakfast.

  “Hey, Reina I haven’t been able to ask yet, but how is Felt? She will need support from a Noble house to even qualify to join the Royal Selection, right?” he asked curious what will happen to Felt now that she has no Sword Saint to back her like in the original timeline.

  “You need not to worry about her. In fact, I heard my father talking with her. According to my Divine Protection of Probability Prediction, if nothing goes wrong my father will become her sponsor” she said, her voice straining when she said the word ‘Father’

  “Is that so?” he rubbed his chin.

  “Also, maid, are you behaving?” Reina stared at Rem who shivered meeting her gaze, and Zero said “No need to worry Reina, she hasn’t tried anything funny”

  Reina lessened her hostility, and Rem was relieved, she casted a grateful look towards Subaru, while feeling guilty for trying to kill him.

  “Reina, can you teach me swordsmanship?”

  “I will be more than happy to assist you!”

  Emilia seeing them talking cannot help but pout “Miss Reina! Zero first will learn Spirit arts!”

  Reina’s expression turned dark as she looked at Emilia ‘This witch! How dare she try to steal my time with Lord Zero!’ her hand slowly reached towards the hilt, when she received another head pat.

  “Sorry, Reina but I have asked Emilia to learn Spirit Arts before you came, after I make contracts with the spirits and check out some spells. I will learn Swordsmanship from you” he said.

  Reina nodded loving the warmth on her head- for some reason she wanted to purr.

  After that Emilia taught him to call for the spirits, which was basically you just do it.

  ‘How I am supposed to call for spirits? When she doesn’t tell how I can call them?’ he thought as he looked at the Emilia who was staring at him with a dumb smile on her face.

  It was basically you wait for the Spirits to approach you themselves. After a few minutes some Spirit appeared in the periphery of the garden, however they didn’t budge.

  “Why are they not coming?” he asked and Puck said “I have an idea, it’s because of Miss Sword Saint here”

  “Her very presence distorts mana around us; so that might be the problem” he continued.

  Reina looked at him in embarrassment and said “Sorry! I almost forgot! Let me activate my Divine Protection- There you go”

  The spirits suddenly charged at Subaru and started floating around him, touching intimately.

  “They are lesser spirits, ball of mana that had just become spirits. Now to make a contract with them, you will need to use your mana for the contract and if possible, an anchor” Emilia said.

  He nodded and looked at the Spirits floating around him, he first grabbed the Lesser Light Spirit that he felt deepest connection with and asked “Would you like to make a contract with me?”

  The Spirit danced around on joy while other spirits felt jealousy.

  “Very well, you, and you, and you! Including this guy! Let’s make a contract!” he said with a smile.

  He chooses one spirit of fire, one spirit of water, one spirit of wind and one spirit of Light.

  Soon he was finished making contract with them and they danced around with joy.

  ‘So cute’ he thought as he looked at them, meanwhile other spirits nudged him wanting to make a contract with him.

  “Sorry little guys, I won’t be making any more contracts” he said and they slowed down, expressing their sadness.

  He felt bad, but he didn’t want to create an army of spirits, only make contracts with the spirits that was necessary.

  “Zero, there is no harm in making in contract with them, right? They look so sad” Emilia suddenly said as she stared at the contrast of four joyful and smug spirits, staring down at the rest of the spirits.

  “Indeed, it is also beneficial as one lesser spirit doesn’t have enough mana, having multiple of them solves this problem” Puck said however he shook his head.

  “If my sole focus was on being a mage and a Spirit arts user, I would have done that. However, I am aiming to become a Magic Swordsman” he said.

  The spirits in the end left seeing he won’t make a contract with them. The four stayed with him.

  “Anyway! Let’s go in the forest and check the magic!” Subaru said with excitement.

  Natural spirits could use mana from their surroundings and didn’t need the contractor’s mana.

  “Fura!” He started with the wind magic, unleashing a wind ssh that decimated the tree’s trunk.

  “Damn! And I didn’t even used any mana of my own” he said and then looked at the Lesser Wind Spirit.

  “That was impressive, Zero!” cpped Reina praising him.

  “That was a good attack magic, however you can also use the spell for defence” Emilia said and puck nodded.

  “Indeed, one spell can be used in various ways” Puck said and then continued “Now, let me teach you Fire magic”

  He came in front of him and said “Let’s start with the ice one, it’s chant suffix is Huma”

  He nodded and chanted “Huma!” the mana responded forming a thin yer of ice in front of him.

  “It is fire magic, however it creates Ice projectiles” he chuckled at the irony.

  “Well the fire magic is more about maniputing temperature itself than creating simple balls of fire, using Fire Magic one can increase temperature to create fire or decrease temperature to create ice” Puck patiently expined himself.

  “Yes Sensei!”

  “Good, now use the fire one, it’s chant suffix is Goa” Puck said and he nodded.

  “Goa!” he created a bze of fire that shot forward, using magic Puck cancelled Subaru’s magic to prevent fire from spreading on the forest.

  “Now let’s try the water magic its chant is Shiha”

  “Shiha!” a blue spherical ball of water covered him.

  “Now as for Light magic, it’s suffix is Jiwald”

  “Jiwald!” as Subaru chanted, several heat rays manifested from his fingers and shot forward.

  “Good! Now you know all the magic chants, depending on prefix the power of spells will vary as I taught you before” he said and paused for a minute before continuing.

  “There also some rarer chants for the same types of magic, which I don’t know. You should ask Betty for them and st thing, once you gain enough proficiency in your magic, you won’t even need to chant”

  Emilia then said “Yes as Puck said- Having enough proficiency can let you bypass the chant, however considering you only have affinity for Yin and Earth, you will be only able to bypass the chants for these two types of magics”

  “Indeed, as Lia said, only by contracting higher spirits you will be able to bypass the chant- However finding a True Spirit much less a quasi-spirit is very difficult” Puck said.

  Meanwhile Subaru nodded ‘Only for Yin and Earth Magic my mana is consumed and for other’s my spirits mana is consumed’ he pondered.

  “Now, the question is where are you going to keep this spirit?” Puck asked with a grin knowing well Subaru had nowhere to keep them.

  “Well, I guess I would have to let them around m-” he paused seeing the spirit of Yang disappearing after touching his body.

  “Wait? Where did you go?” he asked panicked as the Spirit came out and flew in front of him, before touching his body and disappearing again.

  The other spirits followed him and disappeared after touching his body, as if going inside him.

  “This is unusual, they are using you as an Anchor” Reina’s eyes narrowed as she activated her Divine Blessing of Spirit Eyes, seeing the spirits inhabiting his body.

  “I get it!” Puck said as he looked at Subaru “Your Spirit affinity is so absurdly high, that you can act as a human anchor!”

  “Really?” he was surprised by this revetion; he knew some spirits could use humans as anchor but it depended on the spirit not human.

  “Let me just check for you” Puck said as he touched his tail on Subaru’s forehead.

  “Interesting, If I am not wrong you won’t need to summon them outside to use magic, as they are acting as pseudo-gates for you, in fact you should be able to use their own mana to cast Shadow and Earth magic and vice-versa!” Puck’s eyes shined.

  Meanwhile Rem who was standing in the background gasped in surprise and looked at Subaru with horror, with this Subaru was essentially a weaker Roswaal!

  “As expected of Zero!” Reina praised him, like a fan girl, Subaru blushed slightly in embarrassment.

  “Sword Saint praising me- Man I don’t know what to say”

  “Anyway, now that I have finished learning the basics of magic, it’s time for me to learn swordsmanship- So, Miss Reina no Sensei! I will be in your care” he bowed towards her.

  Hearing the words Sensei from him, pride swelled inside her and she puffed her chest “Do not worry Zero, I will make you a knight better than Julius!”

  “To be honest if you were not the sword saint, I would have said you were boasting” Subaru chuckled and then thanking Emilia, they returned to the garden and began the training.

  …

  *Stab* *Ssh* *Ssh*

  Subaru relentlessly attacked Reina, however she easily deflected his attacks not even moving an inch from her pce, he hastened the speed of his attacks but with a stab, Reina threw his wooden sword away.

  He panted and fell on the ground “Another defeat, damn Reina you are so good in swords!”

  A tint of blush appeared on her face hearing his compliment, due to her Divine Protection she knew it was a genuine compliment from him, and hearing it from him made her extremely happy.

  “Not only that you are also good in teaching, I can’t believe it. I am already fighting like a pro! And it has been like what? Four hours since we began!” he said.

  “It’s because Zero you have a decent talent in Swordsmanship, I think it’s less only than a few Knights such as Sir Julius and you also learn things and adapt to the situation very quickly” she said.

  “But your teaching talent is also excellent, it is as if everything you are teaching is directly inserted in my brain” he said and she grinned “It’s because I have the Divine Protection of the Teaching, which makes me the best teacher!”

  She wasn’t lying, due to her Divine Protection and Natsuki’s enhance talents he was already at the level of normal knight.

  His true prowess though had reached the level of an elite knight due to his immense speed, quick reaction, superhuman senses.

  “According to my calcutions, if we continue for a few days like this- You should be able to reach the level of an Elite Knight in terms of Swordsmanship” she said.

  His eyes widened, shocked at his own progress. He looked at her with immense gratitude, ‘After this I will be strong enough! To not die randomly!’

  “Thank you, Reina, you are my hero- For real” he said and her heart thumped, her heart beat became erratic, she felt butterflies in her stomach, a euphoria took over her.

  It was love.

  ‘Your hero? Then if that’s the case then I shall be your hero’ she thought with determination.

  “Master Zero, as much as I hate to disturb you both. It is already past lunch time- I have prepared food for you and Lady Emilia, who is waiting for you” said Rem breaking their moment.

  “Is that so? Reina, would you like to join us?” he asked her and she gave shook her head, “Unfortunately, I would have to return to Mansion”

  He sighed and hugged her before saying Bye to her and she left.

  “Master, now please follow me” said Rem and he nodded gncing at the pce from where she teleported.

  “Let’s go”

  To be continued...