My face went through a series of expressions within just a few seconds—shock, awe, confused, and finally anger. I'm pretty sure I broke the world record.

"Who are you calling ugly?" I glared.

"You, of course. Do you see anything else here that's ugly? Cause it's certainly not me!"

"Yo— you—!"

"Now, let go of me before I peck your eyes out. It won't be a pretty sight"

I promptly dropped the foul-mouthed bird, my facial expression frosty as I did so. What the hell is up with this bird? I mean, this is Evangeline's body, for goodness sake! Sure, she may have an ugly personality but, her appearance is far from it. Except for when I cosplayed as the undead during the first few weeks here, Evangeline is quite beautiful.

I haven't fully gained back Evangeline's original looks but, I should be at least above average at this point!

"Honestly, you humans are so rude. Tch! Intruding on a man's personal sleeping time," he clicked his tongue. Can birds even click their tongues? Is that even physically possible?

Wait a second! I was so angry that I momentarily forgot the most important thing—

"What in heaven's name are you? How come you can talk?"

The bird turned to me after dusting his feathers. Somehow I feel like I could read his expressions, as weird as that sounds. And right now, he was giving me an annoyed look.

"Have you been living under a rock? Don't you know a Hō-ō when you see one?"

A Hō-ō? A HŌ-Ō?! No way!

"........ What's that?" I said blankly.

"Wow! You really have been living under a rock. Someone should give you an award"

"I'll roast you like a chicken if you keep being smart with me," I scowled.

"Jeez! Take a joke, will ya? ..... Ahem! But, I supposed I might as well educate a primitive creature like you while I'm at it"

Hmmm. My urge to roast him over a spitfire shot up like a thermometer in boiling water but, I held myself back—getting petty with a talking bird would be beneath me. Not caring about my disgruntled face, the Hō-ō continued in a prideful tone.

"You see, a Hōō is a divine spirit, known to be beautiful, peaceful, and graceful. We are the most revered and holiest creatures in the world, only second in terms of power out of all the other divine spirits. As a symbol, we represent duty, propriety, faith, and mercy. The colours of our feathers represent wood, fire, earth—"

"Okay. So, basically, you're a fancy chicken," I cut in, my face completely unimpressed.

"How dare you?! Calling me a fancy chicken? How disrespectful!" 

The Hōō began to peck at angrily my feet. Thank goodness I decided to wear boots today.

Divine spirit, hmm? I've heard about those in the novel. In fact, there were also a number of books that talked about divine spirits as well. Divine spirits are difficult to explain but, I guess they're kind of like a power cord and an appliance all in one? Basically, a divine spirit channels a mage's mana into their bodies and then changes their form into a useable weapon for the mage to use.

Usually, you can just blast mana out from your body but, it's not a very efficient method of battling unless you have extremely precise control, since some of the mana leaks out in the process. However, if you have a divine spirit, all the mana in the body will be funneled into the divine spirit and the weapon it turns into. In short, they turn into cool ass holy weapons.

Most of the high-level mages in this world are contracted to at least one divine spirit, many of them turning into all sorts of weapons like swords, bows or daggers. Technically, anyone can contract a divine spirit but, not everyone has enough mana to support them. The more powerful the spirit, the faster your mana will drain. If your mana depletes, the weapon turns back into their spirit form, leaving the mage defenseless in battle and vulnerable to attacks.

All this time, I've really wanted to see a divine spirit up close and personal but sadly, no one in the estate contracted with one. Father received holy mana when he was younger, however, he's a duke who holds huge responsibilities in this kingdom so he doesn't involve himself with the holy battles. Nobody else in the Alcmene manor has holy powers either.

Oh! But, I did hear that Evangeline's grandfather used to have a contracted spirit. Sir Klein told me that it was a dragon or something. Ahhhh! How amazing! 

As expected of one of the representatives for the previous ritual. He must have been super powerful too. Unfortunately, he died before Evangeline was born, and his contracted spirit also disappeared in the process.

"Are you listening to me?" the bird yelled angrily. Oops! He noticed that I was ignoring him.