Phantasia: The Princess Knight

Once the shell was broken the rest of the shell quickly crumbled to pieces. "Bwahahahahahaha!!! It is I, the Great Loeri! All shall bow down to me! Hmmm?" Loeri looked over at the wide eyed Alicia and smiled brightly. "Oh~! Alicia! Long time no see!"

"L-Loeri!?" Alicia was shocked. In front of her was no longer the cute little dragon that slept on top of her head. No this was a cute little girl no taller than herself, white hair, a small white dragon's tail, horns, and a pair of little white dragon wings on her back! "Loeri this appearance?"

"Oh, this? It's because we have a contract with each other. So my evolution was different than normal. Although I look like a human now I still have the strength of a dragon!" Loeri said proudly as she put her hands on her hips and raised her nose to the sky. "Come on praise me! I  look cute right!?" 

Alicia couldn't help but laugh. "Yes, Loeri is cute!"

"Not as cute as Frey!" Frey who had been sitting quietly all this time felt her standing of being the cutest was being threatened so she quickly had to defend herself as she stood up on Alicia's shoulder and shook her little fist at Loeri.

"Listen here brat!" Loeri yelled out.

"Alright alright no fighting you two. Loeri you're so much older than Frey how can you argue with her!?" Alicia pinched her brow. She really felt a headache coming on.

"Humph! I will spare you for today!" Loeri crossed her arms across her chest and turned her head not even wanting to look at Frey. But before she did she caught a glimpse of Frey's smug little face making Loeri grit her teeth and want to scream injustice! 

"Loeri come down from there and let's get some clothes on you. You can't run around naked like this." Alicia said as she went over to the dresser to find something for Loeri to wear. Luckily she was about the same size as Alicia which made things a bit easier.

"Stupid human customs! Why must humans wear this stuff!" Loeri complained but still followed Alicia's directions as she learned to wear clothes.

Alicia caught Loeri up on the things that had been happening since she went into her slumber. Knowing that Alicia almost died caused Loeri to pale because if Alicia died so would she. This caused a round of scolding where Alicia only nodded her head and waited for Loeri to finish. 

"Let's go meet with everyone else. The food should be ready by now." Alicia said as she stood up. 

Loeri went to follow after Alicia but suddenly felt a little extra weight on her right shoulder. "Hey brat why are you sitting on my shoulder?"

"Frey, missed Aunty Loeri!" Frey said with a smile while swinging her legs back and forth.

"Humph! Suit yourself." Not saying anything more Loeri quickly followed after Alicia.

A large table was set outside the cottage with a large amount of food laid out on the top of it. Rose and Claire had put their all into this meal since there was no telling when they might get to eat next once they started to dive down into the cave.  Starla was off to the side doing sword swings since she had already been yelled at to never enter a kitchen again after she made a mess trying to help out.

Alicia walked out of the house with Loeri right behind her. The addition of the extra person quickly caught everyone's attention. "Young Miss this is?" 

" Loeri finished her evolution and because she is contracted with me her appearance  has taken on a human form." Alicia briefly explained. 

"This is Loeri!?" Claire yelled out. She remembered the tiny little dragon from before now looking at the cute  little girl the size of her Young Miss, caused her a small shock! 

"Yes it is, I, the Great Loeri! Praise me!" Once again Loeri got into her most dignified pose and pointed her nose to the sky.

Alicia only shook her head and gave Loeri a whack on the head saying: "Enough let's eat!"

Rubbing her head, Loeri felt wronged but when she saw the food in front of her, her stomach rumbled causing her to completely forget about complaining as she quickly sat down. Alicia took the time to teach Loeri how to use the utensils so that she did not have to eat with her hands. The small break that should have only taken an hour turned into five hours because everyone was catching up with Loeri. 

Now outside the space four young girls, one dragon girl and a fairy all looked at the pitch blackness in front of them. Alicia let out a sigh after seeing how expansive this cave was through her detection magic. "Alright, the squire test is in three weeks' time. From what I can tell this cave runs really deep and expands far out underground so we will not be able to explore the whole thing in such a short amount of time. So we have two choices. First, this mission will need to be put on pause while we take the squire's test and undergo the training. Luckily there is no time limit on this mission so we do not have to worry about rushing to finish it. Or we can just take a look this one time and if we come up with nothing we can give up on the mission." 

"I think if we do not find any traces of this fire and ice lizard then we should just give up the mission. But if we do we can then postpone it. Since discovering a new species, especially one that is as elusive as this fire and ice lizard will bring us a few merit points." Rose explained. Everyone else spoke out in agreement with what Rose said.

"Okay since everyone agrees then we will do it that way. When we descend, stay vigilant. After the Lost Forest incident you never know if there will be any demon spawns present. Everyone ready?" Alicia asked. She looked at everyone and only after seeing them all nod did she step forward and enter the blackness of the cave. Their first goal was to find the first shaft to the next floor underground.

*********************************************************************************************************

If you are not reading this at [W.e.b.n.o.v.e.l .c.o.m.], then the content you're reading is stolen! Please support the author at [w.w.w.w.e.b.n.o.v.e.l.c.o.m./.b.o.o.k./.14.8.1.3.6.1.6.5.0.6.7.7.8.9.0.5./.P.h.a.n.t.a.s.i.a.%.3.A.-.T.h.e.-.P.r.i.n.c.e.s.s.-.K.n.i.g.h.t.]remove periods for address since some sites monitor warnings like this.