A little bit earlier.
As Cyril left his dorm and seconds turned to minutes, the tiger's mood changed.
The feeling of being an older brother slowly faded into the background, replaced by wild imaginings of how awesome it would be to go to the lessons together with Cyril.
He regretted it! But it's not too late, it never is!
So, Tigris turned towards his sister and roared.
We must do something!
Hearing a cute meow, Morpho stayed still in thought, then shook her head.
As the tiger's expression turned shocked, she fluttered towards the window, opened it, and flew out. Since she was free, she wanted to go train, so there was no time to waste on idle chatter.
Tigris recovered from his shock and desperately jumped onto the table and after her through the window. He wasn't done!
As Morpho flew to the park, she observed Tigris trying to pursue her. He pawed at the air mid-run and bared his fangs, full of complaint.
Although his actions led to endearing stares from the passing students, Morpho perfectly understood what her sibling wanted to convey.
He proposed an alliance against Atheris, the mean snake. She was the youngest, yet she behaved so rudely to them!
Morpho, the ever-competitive butterfly, only fluttered her wings in contempt and sped up, getting rid of the tail. She saw no need to enter a team. Atheris was simply being a rival, just like how she wanted.
Tigris stared at the departing red dot in the distance and then slowly slumped on the ground, his tail lying limp. Abandoned by his big sister...
Seeing a pitiful kitten on the road, a few students approached with shining eyes.
"Aw, poor baby!" a female student affectionately called out. She walked closer, only to be stopped by her friend.
"Hey, that's Thorne's cat. Leave it. We are going to be late."
Tigris didn't even look at them. He was already used to humans treating him like some mentally deficient tiger, calling him embarrassing names and whatnot.
If Cyril didn't forbid him from harming humans, he would've long shown them his majesty and strength!
"So what? How could I not pet such a cute little guy?" The student shook off her friend and approached again.
But he was in no mood to entertain them today! How could a random human touch him so easily? Tigris turned around, wanting to let them experience the fearsomeness of a tiger's roar.
However, all his thoughts of making trouble immediately disappeared once he actually saw the human.
The student was crouching in front of him, holding a box full of tasty meat snacks in her hands. Her face appeared slightly familiar, but then again, all humans, aside from Cyril, looked pretty similar to each other.
"Here, this will cheer you up!" The student took one piece of meat and laid it on her hand in front of Tigris.
...
From their shopping trips in the past, Tigris received a few books with wisdom about the outside world.
From them he read that a competent emperor must be able to show mercy and not let emotions cloud his judgment.
So, as a show of good faith towards the students of Ailanthus, he graciously accepted the gifts. Besides, a few pats were nothing, and he did skip his breakfast.
The female student with long brown hair smiled in triumph and enjoyed the soft fur of the tiger.
...
In the Demonology auditorium Cyril tried to focus on his studies.
"Tsk. He is really easy to bribe..."
What?
"Someone is feeding Tigris."
Oh.
Not paying it too much attention, he continued listening to their professor delve into gruesome details about how demons operate.
By now, few of their classmates winced whenever they looked at the projection on the whiteboard. Slowly, everyone here was growing more and more familiar with the demonic threat.
After a few people were called to answer a few questions about fleshworms' weak points, they were dismissed.
Next they went through Potion Making, researching into how to perfect the recipe of a healing potion. The bearlike professor for this lesson couldn't help but retell a story about how he almost received a prize for his invention of adding frog legs to the mix, but the idea was stolen by someone else at the last second.
Cyril found himself paying little attention, distracted by the premonition-like experience he had. He kept thinking about what it could be, essentially acting absentminded.
As a result, he was called to answer a few questions, though thankfully Rhamn was paying attention, and he easily answered them.
I should focus...
After this, they went through History, where the already exhausted students resisted the urge to fall asleep to the best of their abilities.
Today their professor of history decided to rant about the old days some more, urging the disinterested nobles present to visit the church.
Atheris this whole time stayed perfectly still. Cyril couldn't even feel that there was a snake underneath his jacket the whole time.
Only she would occasionally peek at the outside world, flicking her tongue in curiosity.
Finally, when the bell rang again, Cyril immediately turned towards Myra.
"Meet me after two hours, in the park."
Seeing Myra nod in understanding, he quickly left the auditorium and soon the castle itself.
Cyril went towards the park, eager to test Atheris's ability.
But as he neared the fountain from before, he found a headache there waiting for him.
Tigris, the majestic tiger, stood on a stone border of the fountain, his head raised high.
Near him flew Morpho, who was done with her training and ready for battle.
The moment Cyril came close, the tiger began meowing in his direction with complaint.
He knew it wasn't directed at him.
Atheris poked her head out of his uniform and stared at the brave kitten that just challenged her with threatening eyes.
Tigris's momentum was almost broken, but he quickly regained it after taking a peek at his big sister nearby.
Morpho too twitched her antennae in a challenging manner. The kitten managed to convince her after a few more attempts. Not to mention that the red butterfly wanted to fight the snake from the very beginning.
Atheris alternated between the two of them, not getting scared in the slightest. Rather, her energy was only getting bigger and bigger. Her golden eyes threateningly observed them all, as if trying to find a weak spot to take advantage of.
Cyril stood there with a blank face, not even sure what to do at the moment. The three magic creatures completely ignored him and were absorbed in their own little world.
"It's fine, let them play around. They won't harm each other seriously. I guarantee it. Aren't you curious how it will go?"
He was. So Cyril calmly assumed a spectator's stance.
Atheris moved first. She even slithered out completely from Cyril's jacket and onto the ground.
She slowly moved towards the two challengers, her golden eyes shining with contempt.
Successfully provoked, Morpho shot forward as the wind.
She was a practitioner of the Dragon Art technique. Her speed and strength were enhanced beyond any natural limit. There was no way that an inexperienced Atheris would be able to react in time.
At least that's what she thought.
Morpho reached her opponent in a blink of an eye. However, to everyone's surprise, Atheris managed to dodge the attack at the very last second.
The butterfly swiftly turned around and stared at the serpent with shock.
Atheris only replied with a provocative flicker of her tongue.
Completely enraged, Morpho attacked again.
At a much closer distance now, she slashed with her wing, ready to follow up with a barrage of different strikes.
Atheris, with some awkwardness, managed to twist her scaly body out of the way. Her movements were clearly inexperienced, yet she dodged all nonetheless.
Morpho, out of frustration, slashed with her wing particularly strongly.
The serpent not only moved her body in time but, using the momentum from the dodge, successfully hit the butterfly with her tail.
The strike held much more strength than her small body would suggest. The butterfly was sent flying against her will.
It just so happened that on the way, she crashed into Tigris, who was joyfully spectating with no intentions of fighting himself.
The cub fell from the fountain's stone border right into the water, ending up completely soaked.
Morpho evaded this fate by using the body of the tiger as a jump board and regaining control of her flight.
Before she could attack again, Cyril stood between them.
"That's enough!" he said, announcing the end of their duel.
Their surroundings turned quiet. Only Tigris poked his head out of the water with teary eyes.
With panicked movements he stumbled out of the fountain and ran up to Cyril, asking to be picked up.
Cyril obliged, also using a spell to dry his fur.
As he held the kitten, he thoughtfully observed the snake, who immediately stuck out her tongue in a cute way, meeting his gaze with an innocent expression.
When she and Morpho fought, he saw premonitions of how the butterfly would move, making the guess in his mind about her ability even more certain.
Isn't it too ridiculous if that's the case?