I walked happily to the door, opening it with a wide smile, and then froze. There was the faint sound of another person mixed in with Aaron’s and Adrian’s familiar sounds. Hmmmm, I think I remember this heartbeat…….Aaron and Adrian both greeted me.

“Hey brother…..”

“Hello Felix, why did you have Arvid call us here?”

I ignored both of them.

“Ne~ Dragon Lady, why are you here? And Arvid, why didn’t you stop her from coming? Or at least tell me that she came here along with these kids…...”

There was a long pause, and then Arvid spoke in a confused voice.

“Um, Boss, the Dragon Lady is in her room on the other side of the school, she isn’t here…..”

I took a step towards where I could hear the sound

“No, I can hear her heartbeat, even though it’s a bit faint, she’s definitely here, though I can’t smell or feel her….Ne~ Come out!”

There was an awkwardly long moment of silence, and then I felt the Dragon Lady’s form appear right in front of me. Her spicy dragon scent washed over me.

“.......That was one of my clan’s strongest stealth spells. it should be impossible for the user to be detected in any way…….”

I pointed at my new cat ears.

“I probably wouldn’t have heard it before these, but now my hearing has reached a whole new level~”

Miss Drake was silent for a long moment.

“.....You really are weird, anyways I’ve been wanting to talk to you for a while, but haven’t had the chance with you busy playing around with all of those idiotic humans.”

I suppose she means the behavioral education I gave to those teachers…...She sure seems to have a low opinion of her fellow colleagues…..

“Ah, yep! I got pretty sidetracked by that….I suppose this ‘talk’ involves dragons?”

I heard her grit her teeth.

“I would prefer you didn’t talk about that so openly…. ”

I waved my hand dismissively, and began to walk to one of the plush couches in my room, this sounded like it might be a long conversation.

“Eh, All of the people here can be trusted…...probably~”

I hopped into the comfy couches and sat back happily. I felt the Dragon lady follow my lead, plopping down in a chair across from mine.

“That is not very reassuring…..”

I thought about it for a long moment, wondering how to hurry the conversation on to the interesting stuff…...Aaron and Adrian walked over and sat next to me on the couch. Why were they here again? Ah, that’s right, the family bond…..An idea occurred to me.

“Heh, I have a way to ensure that everyone here won’t hurt you Miss Drake~, All three of you hold out your hands.”

Aaron and Adrian didn’t hesitate to do as I asked, but Miss Drake hesitated.

“What about the man over there, the one that bound all of the teachers? Not that the binding had much effect on me, I could have escaped it at any time, but he’s still connected to those brutish high rankers…..”

I felt Zale rise from the couch he was sitting on and walked over to the woman. I made no move to stop him, curious to see what he would do next. He spoke with his voice rough from anger.

“I Will Never Cooperate With Those Disgusting Excuses For Human Beings Ever Again, No Matter What The Stakes, I Intend To ELIMINATE EVERY LAST ONE OF THEM!!!”

Hrmmmm, something sure was itching under his skin…..Fate probably told him something about himself in order to prove her real identity……..I didn’t mind his intentions too much, as they pretty much aligned with mine, but I would have to be careful to protect any interesting toys I found among the high rankers….Done with his little tantrum, Zale sat in one of the chairs near my couch and sat down. I gave a slight cough.

“*Ahem*, Well, as you can see, Zale’s intention have changed, and for extra security, he has already gone through the thing I’m offering to do for you, oh, I’ve done for Raina over there too.”

I felt all three of them tense as they realized Raina was in the room, Aaron and Adrian I easily accepted, but I couldn’t help but inwardly snickered a bit at the Dragon Lady’s reaction, even though she was a dragon, she was scared of Raina…..Still, Miss Drake seemed like she would be an interesting card to have on my side, so I didn’t mind giving her a family bond. After a long pause, she finally held out her hand. The couch and her chair were close enough that she barely had to stretch to get her hand next to Aaron’s and Adrian’s smaller hands. Without even having to be asked, Zoe quickly sliced each of their palms, eliciting small gasps of surprise from the two little boys beside me and a snarl from the Dragon Lady. I quickly pressed my still bloody palm to each of theirs, allowing our blood to mix. I felt letters appear in front of all of them, and three fell into my lap. There was the usual pause as all three opened their letters and read them. The Dragon Lady was the first to comment.

“.....No Way, You Just Made Me A Part Of Your Family!? Oh, and it says your immortal, and there are hints about different worlds…...That’s how you know the greeting, isn’t it! You’ve met other members of the clan in different worlds!......Wait, that means……...you’re the Wandering Trickster, the guy all the mothers tell stories about to keep all the dragonlings in line, I never thought you were actually real!?”

Yep, the dragon clan was one of the few species that had connections throughout many of the worlds. Still…...When had they started using me as a boogeyman? The fact that they did so didn’t really surprise me, dragons made excellent toys to play with since they were so durable, and they had this ‘better than anyone’ attitude that was always fun to trample…..Aaron suddenly spoke up, interrupting my drift to happy memories of dragon torture.

“Bro, if you’re really immortal, why do you act afraid of things?”

Hmmmm, not a bad question.

“Right now, I’m in a deal with Fate, she and the other powers sealed my power, and I’ve entered into a cycle of reincarnation, Fate decides what worlds I am sent to, so when I find a world I really like, I tend to have a stronger life-preserving instincts. This has been one of my favorite worlds so far, so I’ve been acting a bit more cautious than usual, but as soon as I get some real strength, it’ll be an entirely different matter. Also, it’s fun to act like a mortal~ ”

There was a long silence at that, and then Adrian spoke up.

“Wait…..If you’re an all-powerful being, why didn’t you just seal yourself and reincarnate through your own power, why have others bind your power?”

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

I had already considered this when I was deciding whether to accept Fate’s deal.

“It’s quite simple, really, if I’m the one to bind my powers, then I could release them at any time I wanted to, it’s not interesting that way. With my powers bound by others, I can’t reach them even in situations where I might be strongly tempted to do so, it makes my experience feel more realistic.”

Feeling that I had explained myself enough, I turned my attention back to the Dragon Lady.

“Well, what did you want to talk to me about?”

“Ah, erm, well the first thing I want to discuss with you is the little dragonling on your shoulder….”

My mind went blank for a moment, and then I snatched Void off of my shoulder and held him up in front of me for her to see.

“There is NO WAY this idiotic chicken-lizard is a dragon!”

It was true that dragons didn’t start smelling like dragons until they were fully matured, so I wouldn’t be able to tell if Void actually was a dragon, but No Self-Respecting Dragon Would GROW FLUFFY WINGS!!!!! The Dragon Lady coughed slightly.

“It is true that his development has been, well, UNUSUAL, but the imperial family of this world is well-known for being a bit eccentric…..though this little prince has certainly reached levels of weird yet to be seen in his family…..”

A large headache was starting to beat at my forehead.

“Ok, so if Void really is who he says he is, why did I find one of the imperial family wandering around in the woods without protection, about to get eaten!?”

I heard the woman shift in her chair slightly, uncomfortable.

“So that’s how you found him? Errr, well, you should know that though the dragon clan is blood related, we develop differently depending on what world we are on. In this world, we develop when we experience things that stimulate our souls. This way of change has varied levels of success, sometimes it can cause one to become weaker, and other times, become stronger. In order to ensure that the ruling emperor of the dragon clan was always strong, the imperial family sends it heirs out into the world almost as soon as they hatch. Through study, it has been found that more advantageous growths occur when we are in contact with unique beings, so a spell is cast on the children to urge them to find the being with the greatest potential they can and bond with them. With that link, they grow in strength as their bonded does, and the bonded is affected by the evolutions of the dragon. When the time come for succession, all the dragonlings that survived are called back, and whoever is the strongest becomes the new head of the family.”

Unique being, eh? No wonder the little brat bonded with me, but…….

“Why does he call me Papa?”

She was silent for a long moment.

“I’ve never heard of that happening…….this child really is a weird one…...”

Well, I certainly agree with that fact.

“So, is Void’s identity all you wanted to talk to me about?”

“Ah, no, it isn’t. I was sent here thirty years ago to investigate this school and determine whether they were strong enough to be offered an alliance, we dragons admired their teaching efforts and thought they might be a good place to send our children. Seven years ago, we were about to send an offer when this school was attacked and overtaken by the other schools. We dragons do not ally with anyone who cannot stand by themselves, so it was decided I would wait and see if Dagda managed to free itself from it’s mess. Now it has been freed, but not through the school’s own strength, but instead a single person, you. Since Dagda failed to free itself through it’s own power, we cannot in good conscience, offer it a contract, but I have received orders to offer you an alliance.”

Hmmmm, so she was basically a spy? The alliance might be interesting, but I didn’t really need any of the benefits I would gain from it and the conditions were often constricting for my kind of lifestyle…….but the school……

“What would the school have to do in order to be considered for an alliance again?”

“Hmmmm, they would have to prove they had a suitable base of power, probably even stronger than they had before….I’ll have to check with my superiors, but if they win overpoweringly in the school tournament that’s happening this year, they probably would be offered an alliance in consideration of their potential…..Does this mean you’re not accepting the single alliance involving just you?”

I nodded.

“I don’t like to be directly involved in alliances, they can be restricting, if the school is the one in the alliance, I’ll be able to use it without having restrictions on myself. Tell me more about this tournament, I’ve heard it’s conducted every ten years and determines school rank, but that’s all I’ve gathered from gossip.”

She gave a long sigh.

“Basically schools send their best students to face off against each other, and at the end, whoever has the most wins is ranked the top school. Right now, Dagda still has the title of the top school because of it’s win ten years ago, but now it’s far weaker than it was, I highly doubt it’ll be able to face any of it’s serious competition.”

I grinned widely at her.

“Ehe~ I’m pretty sure I can fix that~”

I felt Raina perk up in the corner of the room.

“Does this mean you’re going to use some of those unique training methods you were talking about earlier?”

My grin widened. Aaron spoke up hesitantly.

“Are they worse than what you had me and my friends do?”

“Yep, all I can promise is the students won’t die….. barely~”

“........I suppose there’s no hope of escape…..”

Heh, of course not….But what I had the students do during special training was far worse than what I did to the brat pack…….Ah, that’s right! I erased their memories of that time…..

“Heh, don’t worry, as my brother, I’m sure you’ll be able to handle it~”

I was starting to drift into thought, planning what training schedule I would do, when Adrian suddenly spoke up.

“I know this is really off topic, but for twins, you and Aaron really look nothing alike……...”

My thoughts were still distracted, and I answered absentmindedly.

“That’s because Aaron and I aren’t really brothers, blood wise at least.”

“WHAT!!!???”

Hmmmm, I had sort of forgotten about that whole thing……..there was something important about Aaron not being my brother…….Ah! That’s right, my revenge! I totally forgot!!!