-Midday. RageFire's Courtyard. Lester's POV-

I thought she'd never stop frolicking all over the dragon...didn't see her checking another pet's rear before, but at least, the dragon wasn't that dirty since they cleaned it for sale. I'm glad she's happy with the scaly pet, but it went at the auction for the yearly salaries of seven of my guards, and the irony is that Lucious was the one who caught it but didn't even ask if we wanted it before bolting to the capital. It was awkward when the merchant told me the money was for the ragefires right after I handed it over, and it was surprising returning with at least one-third the amount from buying a dragon, but why was the merchant in a hurry to leave our little town? The public security is even better than the capital despite some calling it tyranny, but it's certainly good to walk through town without the fear of getting stabbed like it was before, though I was more confident on the way home... We stopped in front of the stables and waited for big sis Liana to arrive with two extra bracelets to control the beast.

"Here." She said handing over the two bracelets to me. "So, did you have fun walking around town with a dragon? Now people will think that you will feed law-breakers to the beast which it's bigger than I remember..." Hand in the waist, she tilts her head pondering while staring at the creature who glares back.

Liana brought the two extra bracelets used for the previous pets Shaila killed, and I started synchronizing them with the collar.

"...Giving humans to wild animals is a terrible idea since it will end up attacking the owner eventually, but this dragon will consume a lot of food indeed, perhaps equivalent to ten more soldiers at minimum.." I cringe at the increased food expenses with the dragon that might even break things while recalling a fluffy wind wolf back at the auction. "Can you believe it was Lucious who caught the dragon? It probably couldn't feel any danger and tried to steal a caged Beast-kin slave." I recall the merchant telling the story to make the public laugh at the dumb actions of the beast.

"Lucious? Are you kidding me!" Liana turns to face me opening her eyes wide in surprise. "...Well, his shabby appearance has lured many bandits so far, so it's no surprise this dumb beast felt nothing wrong." She points with her hand while looking at me to the sides working on the devices.

"Muu! She's not dumb!" Shaila protests from the beast's head.

Certainly, I didn't order it to hold Shaila on top of the head like that...any other beast would just drop little sister to the ground unless ordered... However, just because you didn't find something, doesn't mean its a female. Dragons need to protect their sensitive parts with their scales, or it would ruin their day when swimming in lava and burning their ass, though their resistances depend on affinities and magic capabilities, where a water dragon would find it difficult to breathe fire.

"I'm done, they are sync now." I hand over a bracelet to Liana then head over to Shaila and throw the bracelet up for her to catch since I cannot reach the height she's at. "Fill it with your magic then press the button before speaking, and the collar should transmit what you said using mana waves to the dragon's brain, but you are also there so be careful. " I explain the procedure to communicate or send orders until she nodded and started concentrating while I went back to the front of the dragon.

"I wanna talk to her now!" Shaila exclaimed contentedly powering the device on her right hand while grabbing with the left a horn as long as her open palm.

Well, she should be okay with her rank since the collar is too far to have severe mana interference, but that's also bad for precise communication and orders...that's odd... it should be normal for an unawakened beast not to execute orders correctly, especially with the device so distant. I ignore the incongruity of the beast while feeling satisfied to have made my little sister happy with a pet that won't die easily then make her sad again.

"Dragon gender doesn't work like ours, the people from the guild said it should be male but aren't entirely sure, and the beast is too young to talk back, or even understand more than a few commands since it was recently Tamed." I correct her misunderstanding recalling more vague information from the merchant before he started packing his things to leave town.

"He can't talk back yet?" Shaila disappointingly said looking at us while leaving her mouth agape.

"Sweety, he's just a baby dragon that's too young to learn magic to talk back, but you can help him understand more than just basic orders by repeating some words until he realizes their meaning, just like how human babies learn to talk...besides some discipline." Liana patiently explains looking up at Shaila while covering her eyes from the sun with a hand while patting a black whip with the other.

I know you are angry at the dragon for going through that embarrassment, but I'll have you refrain from making the beast unhappy because it could snap one day to take it on Shaila...it's fine if it bites you though since it's your own fault for doing those indecent acts like an animal in the first place. There have even been pets who were resold then broke free from the brainwash and went hunting down their previous owners. Which is why is better to hire a trusted worker instead of buying an expensive slave just because it has high talent in magic and could betray you later when its strong enough.

"Un! I'll sleep with him and do it until I'm out of magic!" Shaila happily says and starts to concentrate.

"You can't do that!" Liana shouts rejecting Shaila's idea then quickly facepalms herself for misunderstanding something. "For various reasons... mainly because it could squash you by accident, get cut with the scales or even his bugs jump on you." She reasons with the girl who had previous pets sleep in her bed before because of her stubbornness.

"Can you understand me? Grunt something if you do." Shaila kept repeating the same thing at the bracelet hoping the beast would perceive it sooner than a random conversation.

"Lester we need to unlock the magic seal on the dragon so it can learn magic as soon as possible before she starts sliping out of the house at night." She said next to me with a tired voice while covering her face with a hand.

"I don't know...it feels like its a little too soon for that...don't you feel something out of place with the dragon?" I frown observing the creature who is staring at us with intelligence in its eyes.

The plan was to lower the thought suppression and magic interference gradually while it acclimates to living with us, and increase it as punishment when it does something out of line until it's obedient enough just to use it for communication. However, because dragons grow fast before awakening, the collar looks tight already, and we might need to get a bigger, more expensive one... Dragons pets are money drains, and Liana is right, we should rush the process since it looks quite docile, but nothing they told me about this dragon makes any sense, and it makes me feel unease. I gave it simple commands, but there was no mistake made except maybe moving after Shaila was checking his rear and he looks eerily smart observing our actions... A common dragon alone in the wild would take longer to mature because there's no need for sophistication and just indulges in wild instincts, but things change with other intelligent beings around to guide it and teach things such as rules, behavior patterns or magic after awakening his affinities.

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"...Well, he didn't act like a typical wild beast when we first met either and was recently Tamed to follow an elaborate secret order from previous owners, but he doesn't look aggressive or bothered by Shaila sitting on his head." She voices her perspective on the beast abnormal behavior while narrowing the eyes in suspicion.

I already used the reset function for secret orders, but this is a newly tamed beast, and no one else other than the guild or Tamer should have done something besides the small possibility of another bracelet in sync. However, the maximum range of bracelets is just twenty steps, ruling out that possibility, but the Tamer could have been an amateur who confused the suppression, for the interference function since the former seems rather low when its supposed to be high. I noticed earlier the magic interference is surprisingly high, and the only other reason would be to stop the beast from injecting mana into the core in his chest which helps them train their magic, but that doesn't make sense for a baby dragon... With doubt about the dragon's magical capabilities, I concluded that probing his chest may be necessary before calling a tamer from the guild to unlock the magic seal. Unlike the Mana waves for brain suppression which are smaller but more intense to interact with Spirit and only directed at the brain, the magic seal are different waves around the collar that disrupt or even strip mana from spirit leaving the individual incapable of accurately controlling it to produce magic arts.

"That's because I'm not fat like sister with huge lumps on her chest tehehe~" Shaila laughs having fun on the dragon's head moving slowly to look around.

"...I hope she's happy enough to eat more now since it feels like the wind would carry her sometimes and it wasn't so long ago that we had to force food down her throat..." Mutters Liana next to me recalling the difficulty to keep her healthy over the past year since the incident.

Grandma was right, she couldn't heal Shaila's heart, but maybe a pet could since not even filling her room with dolls would cheer her up and she...was a doll herself. However, I need to make sure this dragon will help her recover and not just run away or hurt her at the first chance it gets. Probing another human is easy since our magic density is evenly distributed throughout our bodies and that in turn makes it easier to do quick magic arts, but Dragon holds their magic in greater densities at their core along with elementals, so unless they take it out, you can't do accurate readings while for humans, just takes touching their magic with yours.

"I'm gonna make sure if he has magic in the core before removing the magic lock." I resolve myself to probe his core in the chest despite my inexperience at thinning out magic to investigating inside living creatures.

"Are you crazy!?" Liana pulls my shoulder making me face her direction. "You could hurt his fragile infant spirit, and who knows what else may happen with the collar active as well... the damage could be amplified and turn him retard for a long time." She gets close and whispers exasperated. "I'm not convincing Shaila to forgive you if something happens." She said scowling and separated to look at the white haired girl changing postures on the dragon head.

"I'll just have to be careful with the collar interference since the suppression doesn't seem that high, but if anything happens then put your body to good use and distract the beast while I grab Shaila." I tell her while the dragon's gaze as if reading my reactions sends shivers down my spine.

"Well, at least Nobles stopped sending marriage proposals." She said shrugging as if it was a better choice to bed any men rather than marry a novel.

"Your activities did not have just the effect you thought when the eyes of an unsavory person are locked on you precisely because of your increased healing capabilities." I express disgust recalling the last year events that changed all of us.

We probably don't make Father proud, and abuse power like other nobles that even take lives without much reason, but because of that kind nature of his, many people suffered, especially us from the bandits he let live when they settled near our town. All he does now is fade away in his room drinking alcohol without talking to anyone while I manage our family's assets, town security and collection of taxes for the country, but I also had help from Alphonse in contacting spy information networks to be one step ahead of our enemies. However, even with the spy network, we couldn't find traces of whoever was actually behind the bandits kidnapping of Shaila, but I did find out about that disgusting noble who wants Liana's body despite the efforts to ditch her magic talent and going Aura to discourage people...as well as how she used her body to keep me from getting taken away back then. I disapprove sister's choice to discard her earth element talent as high as my own to use Aura for increase stamina and disease resistance when having sex.

"Wait, who could be that bad of a pervert when you think I can't take him on... D-don't tell me!?" Her pale face tells me she realized.

"It's the creepy guy who rushed on a dragon flying to our town just to evaluate the tortures Father did on the bandits...he said Dad was an amateur that let them die too easy, but I concur with that." I recall the Marquise that is good at his job protecting the borders but have a hobby of torturing indecent people or those who enjoy killing others.

"Marquise of Domenour..." Liana slumps to the ground losing strength while muttering. "...Why is our luck so terrible? It's one thing after the other against our family." She said on the verge of crying.

"Don't break now Big Sister, we brothers have each other even if everyone else is unreliable." I console her and turn to look at Shaila sprawled all over the dragon head and snout while the dragon struggles to look at us through her dangling legs obstructing his vision. "If you ask me...we are not doing that bad despite Dad being so unreliable, Lucious hardly talk to us, and Mother believes that we brought her a lot of shame...In any case, you are not his priority, and we'll deal with it when the time comes." I look at the dragon who seem amused from our conversation while ignoring the girl hugging his head with arms and legs.

"Shaila, either get down or hold on to his horns, I'm going to check something..." After telling her, she repositions to the previous sitting posture while I command the dragon to stay still. "Aren't you tired or out of magic yet?" I lift my head telling her while Big sister is still muttering the name of the Marquise like some broken spy who was tortured.

"Fufufu do not underestimate my talent! I still can go on, and is brother envious?" She leans over looking down at me a wide smile.

She still hasn't had enough playing around and was almost sitting on the beast's nostrils...inappropriate, but as expected of our little Shaila's talent, she still not out of magic and if we also help with the bracelet then it could take less than a season for the beast to communicate. However, this innate talent of our family has also turned out to be a curse that makes other Nobles desire us to the point of getting creative in their methods, but what use is talent when you lack knowledge and resources to Rank up? Noble families may have one or two kids per generation with medium or high talents while most of those kids awaken their affinities beyond seven years old, but Shaila did it when she was four and has been envied, hated or sought after by others ever since.

"Hey! I'm a higher rank than you, and also trying very hard in every field you know? Even I want some praise!" I protest to her attitude reaching behind the Dragon right foreleg.

"...Thank you, I know big brother is hard working and loves his little sister." Shaila said with a serious tone looking at me. "He may look a bit different from how I imagined at first but these fibers are not uncomfortable to sit on, and he doesn't hate it either... I can tell." She said and fixed her posture, and stopped using the bracelet to let me to do what I intended.

That's cheating, getting all serious on me like that when you used to be a cheerful girl who loved watching the sunrise and sundown...sighs. Let's get this over with, and go back to some shade from the intense sunlight, but we still gonna a bigger stable in the future. I steeled myself for the examination and placed my right hand on his side behind the foreleg, making him flinch a little before relaxing again then closed my eyes to send a thin magic stream inside his body towards the core in the middle of his chest, but suddenly my Spirit was stripped of magic by the collar interference and clashed with a will as strong as a grown man. The dragon's body trembled a little, but my head started spinning as if falling off a horse running at full speed and did my best to take a few steps back towards the soldier's barracks then kneeled down gasping. My actions woke up Liana from her daydream and rush to my side, to see why my face was contorted in pain while the beast turns around slowly to stare at us.

"What happened?" She grabs my shoulders and urges an answer while looking between the dragon and me trying to identify what went wrong.

"Hah, hah... it's the dragon..." I try to calm down my disoriented state by breathing slowly then whisper to her. "The dragon is not tamed!" Realizing that Shaila will be in danger if the beast is alarmed, we stayed still for the moment.