A faint light emitted from Mika's hands but that was about it. No matter how hard he concentrated, nothing else happened.
Xavi saw it and patted Mika's hand, "It's ok, it takes a while. When I first got my power, it was also hard to manifest my power."
"But you're a kid."
Xavi dropped his head and sulked. He was just trying to be nice, why did Mika have to be so blunt?
"Despite him being a little boy, he managed to manifest his abilities in less than a few hours, was it? A moody teen like you don't want to lose to a kid, no?" Lia added fuel to the fire.
"I'm 25," Mika finally revealed his age.
"Oh," Mika was a bit older than Lia thought but he was still younger than her if she counted those years in the abyss.
"This is surprising, you still act so childish at this age."
Mika turned his gloomy eyes to her and Xavi quickly interrupted, "I'll help you with the power. I think I know the best how to guide you. Lia is using her soul now, so it's different from us with life force."
"Wasn't she an exorcist?"
"I was talented since a kid, so I can't remember. It came as natural as breathing."
"Ok, ok," Xavi pushed Lia to Lily, "Please go and have some fun with Lia."
"Fun?" Lia raised her eyebrows.
"Yes, fun!" energetically Lily took Lia by the hand and went for the mansion. Barely turning her head, Lia saw how Xavi went back to Mika and started teaching. It was a funny sight.
In the evening, Lia finally came back from the adventurous trip with Lily through the city. Lily was too excited to be able to enjoy her day and didn't spare Lia at all. From one store to another, they went.
Lia found out that the stores were spread across the whole city and not only in the city centre. That was why the city centre only had a few stores. Along the way, Lily stopped and chatted with quite a few residents, making Lia's head spin just wanting to rest.
But Lily was by far not finished, dragging Lia to test out everything that looked good, despite the D family's mansion's chef being more than extraordinarily in his cooking.
After a long while, when the sun already went down, Lily agreed to go back. Lia was eager to head back, not only because she was exhausted but also because she wanted to know what kind of powers Mika would have.
In order for Mika to redeem himself, Lia hoped it would be a strong power. As long as Mika was overpowered, then Lia would forgive his attitude.
Back at the mansion, the servants led Lia and Lily outside again to the small back area of the mansion, only to witness Xavi sitting with his lollipop while Mika panted on the ground.
"Has he made any progress?" Lia approached them and stared down at Mika.
"Visibly," Xavi nodded his head.
"What's his power?"
"I'm jealous, the D family really has a great ability… It's summoning."
"Summoning? What kind of?" Lia's interest was piqued, if Mika could summon anything, he would be truly overpowered.
"Anything," Xavi casually said and Lia widened her eyes, "Really?"
"Yep but judging from the D family's history, he can only summon and not control what he summons. Lia, do you get what I mean? He's a great asset to you."
"You mean…" Lia didn't dare to finish her thoughts.
"Yep, he could summon corpses for you to control. The downside is that he can't do anything with them on his own depending on what he summons and what he's capable of, he's still weak."
"Is there any chance for him to train his power so he can use whatever he summons?"
"Maybe, maybe not. It all depends on him but as far as I can remember none of the D family members have been able to. In terms of battles, they'd be the supporter role."
"I see."
"Hey! Don't talk about me as if I'm not here," Mika huffed and wobbly stood up but quickly fell again and ended up sitting cross-legged on the floor.
"My bad, I thought you were a goner," Lia sat next to them and Lily followed suit.
"What can you summon?" curiosity welled up inside Lia and she wanted to see.
However, Mika acting slightly abashed signalled her that he couldn't do anything fancy.
"Erm," he was beating around with his words.
"Just show us."
Mika opened his palm and pressed his eyes together.
"He's concentrating too hard," Lia threw Xavi an accused look and whispered.
"I told him not to but it seems like he can't help it," Xavi whispered back.
"Well, if we are really going to fight and he always makes this face, his opponents might think he's about to take a sh-"
"Stop! I can hear you!" Mika angrily glared and suddenly out of his palm, something dropped.
"Indeed poop."
"Lia!" Xavi couldn't believe his ears. For Lia to say something like that.
"It's not poop. Wash your mouth and eyes clean," Mika was kind of hurt. After a whole day, he could only produce this lousy result.
Lia picked the tiny thing off the ground and examined it. It was a rock.
"Well, you made progress at least."
"Yes?" Mika's stern face lit up and he anticipatingly looked at Lia for more praise.
"Yes, it's very useful to throw at someone. You," and instantly Mika's hopes were crushed as Lia motioned to throw the stone at him.
Mika glared, puffed his cheeks and ran away.
"He's really too moody."
"That was unnecessary. Why are you so mean to him?" this time it was Lily who scolded Lia.
"We'll stay here for a while longer until Mika can summon something larger. We'll try to push to our limit but soon we need to head to the I family. Until then I hope you can make friends with Mika."
Lia remained quiet.
"As a king, you need to be able to move and inspire people. They need to want to be loyal to you and follow you to the end. Mika right now… I feel like he wants to murder you," Xavi sighed.
"I know," Lia knew that the relationship between her and Mika had to be improved, but due to past events it was more or less broken and to fix it was hard and meticulous work.
Lia, as she was right now, knew she couldn't easily make people like her, if it was the bright and sunny past her then it would be no problem.
However, this person didn't exist anymore. Lia was how she was now.
"Try please," Xavi urged her and Lia sighed even more.
For the next few days, every time Lia crossed paths with Mika, she was trying to be nice and kind to him, but both of them knew it was too unnatural. Mika rather was even more vigilant of her.
Things like relationships couldn't be forced, no one knew it better than Lia. For Lia and Mika to be friends, they needed time and mutual understandings. Nevertheless, Lia tried hard not to tease or be mean to Mika and treat him like a little brother.
She wished he would be as cute as Xavi was but that was just wishful thinking.
On the other side, because Mika relentlessly trained day and night, he made fast progress. He could now summon larger things like a tree but it was still limited to inanimate objects. For him to summon corpses so Lia could use them, was still a far way off.
During the day, the four of them would train together. Xavi also needed to work on his power orbs and both him and Mika would make good sparring partners for Lia. Lily merciless beat their physical powers a few levels up.
Because one day Mika would be Lia's supporter in a battle, both of them needed to learn teamwork, so they fought against Xavi and Lily as a team whose synergy was more than perfect.
And so, two weeks passed. It wasn't clear if Lia got closer to Mika but at least he wasn't against the idea of her being the Immortal King.