"Keep your fingers to yourself, if not they might fall off," Eve said indifferently as she sat down on a dark luxurious throne-like chair.
Nox shuddered and quickly pulled back his hands from the skeleton soldier that stood like a statue close to the grey walls. Although it was motionless, the green light that was ignited in its empty sockets constantly scanned around as if searching for any signs of danger.
This was not the first strange skeleton-like creature Nox had come across inside this large mansion.
Eve lived in a mansion very deep in the Cromwell Barony with no other buildings in sight.
In the past, Nox and his friends had once used this mansion for courage tests by standing in front of the door for 60 seconds. They never got in, though, as the wooden door was always shut closed.
'Even when we tried to open it, it had been futile, and I'm so glad the doors never opened if not the other kids would have fainted in terror.'
The entire mansion was filled with skeleton soldiers marching to and fro with spears and swords. Scary statues of exoskeletons of powerful-looking beasts were used as a sort of decoration.
'Knowing Necromancers, I wouldn't be surprised if that terrifying exoskeleton jumped out and attacked an intruder.'
'Also, who would have thought the skull I picked that day would be a butler?'
Staring at Nox with a wide toothless smile was none other than the green-eyed skull from the other day, the only difference being that its head was now attached to the body of a skeleton that was wearing some type of suit.
"Tea?" he said as he served Eve, who took it and sipped elegantly; she had fine table etiquette like a princess.
"Pipsqueak, you care for tea also?"
'Sigh, I can't believe a skeleton of all things is asking me if I want tea? Ugh, I should just take it if I don't want to look rude.'
Nodding, Nox accepted the tea. His hands brushed against the skeleton slightly. Then he stared at the content of the tea…it was dark, very dark. He suddenly lost interest.
"No, I'm full. Before I came here, I drank enough water." Nox smiled as he passed the glass of tea back to the skeleton.
The skeleton, Skully, had an irritated expression on his face. "Did you just refuse my tea? No one has ever refused my tea before. How dare you."
"No, no, no, I didn't refuse your tea. It looks delicious, but I'm not really thirsty right now. Maybe later I'll drink." Nox hurriedly lied through his teeth.
'I'm definitely not drinking that thing!'
"Brat, you just made the biggest mistake of your life; you'll regret this day." Saying these words, Skully stomped out of the room.
"Huh, why is he triggered?" Nox looked at Eve, confused.
"Skully takes pride in his tea… hmmm, this is the first time someone has refused his tea since I brought him back to life." Eve spoke. She didn't delve too much.
Nox had already learned of her personality from his grandfather, so he already expected this.
"That's that, now let's talk about the reason you're here."
Nox nodded and sat down. He was curious about the kind of training he'd receive from a Necromancer.
"Before we begin, I'd like you to take an oath." A black orb materialized on Eve's porcelain palm. "Only a few people know my class in this world. Most of them have died."
Gulp! Nox swallowed as saliva passed through his throat noisily.
'Why is this woman so dangerous even without trying?'
"If you don't want to be among the 'most,' I'd advise you to take this oath stone and swear never to reveal my class until you die."
"Why, if I may ask?" Nox timidly raised his hand like a pupil who was asking questions in class.
"I'm not obliged to answer that. What I'd tell you is that unlike your beast tamer class, mine is well known and feared…and anyone who has this class is immediately crucified."
'It's just like the book. I guess no society would like a class that messes with life and death, it's as expected.'
'Luckily, the beast tamer class isn't like that, and I don't have to hide it. At most, people would only be curious as to why magical beasts are helping me instead of attacking me. The gods, however, would be a different story entirely.'
"That wouldn't be a problem," Eve said.
"Huh? Can you read my thoughts, or was I that obvious?" Nox furrowed his brows. If his thought process was true, then it would really be troublesome learning under her.
"No…but I can tell from your expression. Take the stone and swear."
Finding no harm in taking the oath, Nox held the stone and swore to never reveal her class.
Before they proceeded, Nox learned about the history of beast taming and necromancy. According to his master Eve, the two goddesses had been in a close relationship since the beginning of time. In fact, they were biological sisters.
Technically, all the gods were related in some way or another.
But these two were from the same birth mother and father. As such, their classes were very similar.
While Necromancers focused on raising the dead to become their sword and shield, Beast Tamers focused on taming beasts who would fight alongside them in battle.
It was because of this relationship that Eve even agreed to take the boy under her wings. Because her class was disliked by most people, she only felt comfortable around a Beast Tamer, not afraid of being stabbed in the back anytime soon.
'The same reason I got along well with Arthur,' Eve thought. Nox, who was seated opposite her, thought he saw the indifferent Necromancer show brief emotions in her eyes.
"Now that we've gotten all the formalities out of the way, let's begin our lesson. Before that, how many beasts have you tamed?"
"My taming capacity is just three at the moment, and I have tamed two creatures already."
The fat cat and the panda stepped out of a blue portal that led to the taming space. They looked confusedly at where they were, but because Nox was close by, the two weren't frightened.
"Hmmmm. These creatures don't look intimidating at all, unlike dino there," she said and looked at the exoskeleton of a dinosaur-like skeleton.
The dinosaur gave a loud roar, pleased at the praise it received from its master.
"But they'll be enough for what we would do." Eve displayed a smile that could scare even the devil.
"What are we going to do?" Nox asked, not liking her smile one bit.