Rose stirred, feeling a throbbing pain in her head. She slowly sat up from the bed she was in.

When did I go to bed? Wasn't I in class?

Her memory felt fuzzy… She recalled being extremely bored, angry, and red—a surge of conflicting emotions, a battle within herself.

She grumbled, rubbing her head and checking for injuries. As far as she could tell, she looked in perfect health, besides a strangely splitting headache.

Looking around the room more, she discovered she wasn't in her own room. In fact, she recognized this as the room she had woken up in after the incident with the dire hawks.

"Desthu…" Rose growled.

"Lady Desthu," a stern voice corrected her. "Or do I need to give you a few more ice baths until you finally remember?"

Rose shuddered. She turned to the now-opening door to see the familiar sight of the pinkish-red dragon woman that she absolutely despised. Once again, she was wearing a dress that screamed big money.

"Sorry, Lady Desthu…" Rose muttered. "What am I doing here?"

"You tried to fight with your magic teacher. Quite violently, I might add," Desthu responded, tilting her head accusatively.

"I…" Rose mumbled, then the memories came flooding back. "Might have done that."

"Might is an understatement, my dear. If he had been your poor math teacher, he might not have lived to tell the tale," Desthu pointed out.

Rose felt ashamed.

"Perhaps not sending you to Regarth at the start of the year was a mistake…" Desthu muttered.

"I don't want to leave Lily behind!" Rose shouted.

"I still don't understand why you're so attached to her. I understand you grew up together, but you're not really sisters."

Rose started growling.

"Oh, put a lid on it," Desthu said, rolling her eyes. "Although I will say it's slightly cute that you were both named after flowers, the orphanage staff must have had a sense of humor when deciding on you two."

"I don't care if we're not blood-related. She's closer to me than anyone else," Rose defended, her loyalty to Lily shining through.

"Yes. So I've heard from both you and the staff repeatedly. You even turned down chances at adoption due to her… It's a rather unhealthy obsession, but I guess it is a little draconic."

"Those bastards just wanted to say they had a dragon in the family; they didn't actually care about me," Rose spat out. "Some of them even said they'd adopt Lily too as the family pet."

Even Lady Desthu seemed taken aback by that. "No doubt some minor nobles wanting to spice up their family lineage. Disgusting behavior. Still, what are we going to do with you and these outbursts? They seem to be getting more frequent and intense…"

"I… I'm just so angry, all the time like I'm always on edge…" Rose admitted, somewhat reluctantly.

"I partially think the environment is to blame. You're the top dog…" She shook her head. "Dragon in this place with nobody to challenge you. You crave it. To prove that you're the best."

Rose frowned. "I don't think I agree with that…"

Lady Desthu shrugged. "As much as you want to deny it, it's part of who we are. We want to be the biggest and strongest and show everyone it's true; you either feed or suppress those instincts. You seem to be struggling with the latter option."

Rose blushed.

"The other issue is your dragon puberty-"

"Please stop calling it that!" Rose interjected.

Lady Desthu sighed. "Well… You're currently going through it extremely roughly. No doubt it was somewhat premature or hastened by you killing those two dire hawks."

"Why would that matter?" Rose asked.

"Well, you're the one who said she wanted to be an adventurer. Killing monsters makes you stronger, and that sped up your draconic awakening."

"Oh…" Rose mumbled.

"I think we should send you to Regarth," Lady Desthu stated, her words carrying the weight of guidance. "You can't control yourself, and this environment is poorly suited to get you through this predicament. The outbursts are only going to get worse."

"No!" Rose shouted. "You promised! I don't want to leave Lily behind!"

Lady Desthu rolled her eyes. "Girl, I don't know what good waiting around longer will do for you or that bunny."

"Well, the school year has already started, I can't just join halfway!" Rose quickly countered.

"That is true…" Lady Desthu admitted before giving a smirk. "But sending you early to Regarth would just be the excuse."

This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

"Excuse? For what?" Rose demanded.

"Monster hunting," Lady Desthu replied.

Rose's eyes widened. She felt something in her… Calling.

"Ha!" Lady Desthu chuckled triumphantly. "I thought that might catch your attention."

Rose shook her head, trying to deny it. "W-why would we go monster hunting?"

"Currently, I don't think even sending you to Regarth will do much good," Lady Desthu explained. "You'd likely tear apart some noble brat at your first chance. Which undoubtedly will have consequences no matter how good your bloodline and potential is."

"Okay… But what do monsters have to do with this?" Rose questioned.

"Killing monsters got you into this mess; killing more will get you out of it," Lady Desthu stated. "We will use the growth from monsters to speed you straight through dragon puberty."

"Stop calling it that!" Rose complained instinctually and finally digested the full meaning of what she had just said. "Wait, we're going to kill monsters, grow stronger, and get past this dragon thing?"

"Precisely. It will also allow you to burn off some much-needed steam and feed those instincts of yours that are so starved for attention."

Rose… Liked the sound of that. Something in her was stirring, and the thought of ripping monsters to shreds with her claws or burning them to cinders felt… Right.

"You must really be pent up to actually be drooling…" Lady Desthu said with a chuckle.

Rose blinked in confusion before wiping her mouth. There really was some drool!

Maybe I really do need to get this sorted out…

"I… Agree… Kind of…." Rose muttered.

"Kind of?" Lady Desthu frowned. "This is something you want to do and is clearly for your own benefit. Why hesitate?"

"Can you even kill monsters? Aren't you a noble lady?" Rose asked although she was grasping at straws. She knew full well that Lady Desthu could be downright demonic in her strength.

"Yes. I most certainly can kill a few monsters," Lady Desthu stated bluntly. "While I may not be an adventurer or a qualified mage, you'll be pleased to know that most nobles partake in the sport of monster hunting. You could even say we are socially obligated to help cleanse the realm occasionally."

"Oh… I had no idea…" Rose murmured sheepishly.

"There's a lot you don't know, girl, which is why you should listen to your elders more. Now, is there a real reason you want to delay this? It's for your own good."

"I don't want to just abandon Lily…" Rose finally admitted.

"We most certainly are not bringing her along!" Lady Desthu immediately rejected any potential of that idea. "She will be eaten by the first monster we encounter! Not to mention how much she would slow us down; that girl can barely walk, let alone run."

Rose shook her head. "No… I agree; it wouldn't be safe for her."

Although… If she had more of those spells from Arakil, she might kill more than us. But still… I don't want to risk it. That would also reveal her secret to this demon woman, and who knows what that might lead to!

"Then what's the issue?" Lady Desthu asked impatiently.

"I just…" Rose struggled to find a good reason. "We had things we were planning, I don't want to abandon her so soon without any notice."

Lady Desthu sighed again but nodded. "Very well. I understand the importance of keeping a prior commitment, and it would be horrible to rip you from her so suddenly. Very well, I'll give you until the end of next month to get your affairs in order."

"That's not even two full months…" Rose muttered.

"Be grateful I'm not giving you less!" She shouted back. "If I had my way, we'd ship out within the week. Your teacher has already refused to teach you further after that display."

"Good! He was useless…" Rose snarled.

"While I partially agree with you, I will point out that it means your time now belongs to me."

"Oh… Oh no…" Rose muttered. She did not want more lessons with this demon woman.

"Oh yes." Lady Desthu smirked.

Rose gulped, although she still had a greater worry on her mind.

What am I going to tell Lily?

***

Arakil was practically flying through his archive of knowledge, joyous at having some minor amount of restored power to his form. He was nearing the end of his promised week with the girl, and she hadn't disturbed him once, so he didn't want to disappoint her.

He simply had included too much information in his archive, and trying to search through it without any form of indexing or magical location made the task nearly impossible.

Before the Mana potion, he had found a few methods that may have worked for Lily, but he had concerns and didn't want to settle for an inferior choice. He just knew there was likely a better solution for both of them.

Through all the knowledge he had scoured, the ideal solution seemed to be a process that would create a Mana Core inside Lily. Many different cultures, worlds, or species had variations on the Mana Core, and it could even be likened to the Dantian that Daoists formed when utilizing and condensing their Qi.

If Lily could form a Mana Core, even a tiny one, they could work towards nurturing and growing it over time. It would be the ideal solution, in Arakil's opinion, as it would leave Lily with a potentially bright future.

Especially if my theory of monsters in this world is correct. My first clue was that Rose grew stronger after killing those two dire hawks. With a Mana Core, not only could she nurture it over time, but if she defeated a monster, I truly believe it would grow similarly to Rose.

Other methods he had discarded had involved only granting her Mana temporarily or at the cost of her lifespan and other rather nefarious methods. While Arakil was somewhat desperate to escape the confines of his prison, he couldn't bring himself to sacrifice someone he had declared one of his precious students.

"The only issue is finding a ritual that can create a Mana Core that doesn't require absurdly rare ingredients," Arakil muttered to himself. "So many of these solutions are based on alchemical solutions, likely taking inspiration from their Daoist origin. Pop a pill and breakthrough!"

Arakil scoffed as he tossed one of the "books" aside, describing yet another magic pill.

How would Lily or anyone in this city be able to procure a 1000-year-old ginseng? Or a moonlight-blessed blood lotus? Utterly absurd.

Arakil shook his head.

"We need a grand ritual, but can we accomplish that? Perhaps we could set up an area with sub-rituals to feed the primary one? That way, we could presumably get it to work even with something as weak as the glyph ink."

Arakil pulled up one of the ritual tomes he had kept at the side. Creating a bunch of interconnecting sub-rituals to fuel the main ritual indeed looked like it might be enough to trigger the creation of a Mana core if he was calculating it correctly.

"This way, even something as minor as the glyph ink might work… However, we will likely need quite a substantial number of sub-rituals to compensate. Creating a Mana Core requires a high influx of Mana rapidly compressed within the individual…"

He was mumbling to himself as he continued to explore through his books. He was becoming more confident that it was doable and that they could build up the resources slowly. It wasn't like they had a time limit or anything to worry about.

No. We have plenty of time. Arakil thought reassuringly.

"Arakil!" Lily suddenly shouted to get his attention.

He approached the desk with the book and saw that Lily had already supplied the ink. Grabbing the pen, he wrote out his response.

[Hello Lily, what is the matter? My search has been fruitful, and I have found a reasonable solution. With a bit of effort and a few months of gathering resources.]

"Arakil, Rose is going away!" Lily shouted with worry.

"Well… That complicates things…" Arakil said bitterly to himself.

He silently cursed himself as he could only feel his own bad luck had brought about this.

"I just had to mention we didn't have a time limit…" He groaned. "Why does fate like to always spit in my face?"