Ep 44. Lords Are Mean. (1)
“Ugh…never thought I’d work as an animal guide at two in the morning.”
“Interesting that you sound so tired. Iris did most of the work.”
“…”
Patrick glanced at his little sibling from the corner of his eyes on their way home. Despite having worked for hours finding homes for all the animals and the missing people that had been found, the dragonlord didn’t sound tired at all.
“…You’re in a better shape than I thought. According to your friends, you were fighting beasts, apprehending Eisenhoff…all that cleanup afterwards…you oughta be a little tired after all that.”
“Again, Iris did most of the work. She held those portals open for hours on end while we merely walked back and forth guiding the critters outside.”
“…Come to think of it, didn’t you say you can use every magic element? How come you can’t use portal spells?”
A judgmental stare was the first answer Patrick received. The verbal answered that followed showed no restraint in hiding Serenis’ disappointment.
“’Can use’ and ‘do use’ are different, Patrick. I am not omnipotent. Such spells did not even exist in my time.”
“…Ah.”
Picking up the pieces after Doctor Eisenhoff’s arrest had wrapped up quite smoothly through the sector’s work overnight, especially with Iris’ help.
The animals that had escaped the lab with Light were either transported back to the wilderness or care facilities. The missing people that were found had to be sent back to their homes – and in such instances that required massive amounts of traveling by large number of people, a portal spell came in all too handy.
Which, to Serenis, was unheard of. The spell itself was doubtlessly a human invention, likely developed to minimize the risks involved with teleportation spells.
“It’s pleasantly surprising that humans have advanced magic in some ways.”
“Portals aren’t all that great, though. Difficulty is one thing, but they cost way too much mana to use. It’s even less efficient than teleporting, so not many people pick it up in the first place.”
“Is that why you never learned it yourself? Because it’s too difficult?”
“…No. I just don’t have the right affinity for it.”
“A convenient excuse, that.”
“Hey, you can’t use it either!”
“The kin can fly. Unlike you, we’re not abysmally slow without magic.”
“…”
Patrick’s hands folded behind his head as he stared up at the night sky, casually avoiding the judgmental eyes staring at him from the side.
Another day, another case closed, no notable casualties besides his own injuries. It was a decent night already. No need to make it worse by arguing with a dragon.
“…By the way, what made you leave the house anyways? I get the whole thing about this Light-girl being related to Eisenhoff and that dragon girl going with her, but it didn’t sound like you had anything to do with the case.”
“That doctor figure was making those abominations using my mana.”
“Your mana? How’d he get his hands on that?”
“He possessed a stone that held some of it.”
“A stone? We didn’t find anything like that in his lab.”
“I destroyed it before your arrival.”
Patrick slowly nodded his head. If it was anyone else, he might’ve questioned why their mana was inducing evolutionary disasters, or what their mana was even doing in the hands of a mad scientist – but he’d long figured that questioning such things about his little sibling answered little to nothing. The best course was to nod and move on.
“…So your mana was inducing the evolution in all those animals then. Interesting.”
“It’s an embarrassment to call their suffering an evolution. Animals were not meant to carry such mana.”
Serenis bit her lips as she finished her last sentence.
‘…Animals are not meant to evolve into halves in the first place.’
During her first meeting with Karas, Serenis had thought him to be a peculiar-looking monster. When she’d laid her eyes on the numerous halves in the city, she’d thought them all to be some alternate version of mankind. These so-called ‘halves’ were different from halves she knew.
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Half demon, half man. That’s all halves had ever meant to Serenis: halfbloods that were shunned by man and demon alike. They’d band amongst themselves to become a tribe of their own, led by her own daughter that would later come to be known as halflord.
- ‘My place isn’t with the dragonkin, mother. They need me, just as the kin needs you.’
The dragonlord brooded in silence amidst the haunting memories. The walk home felt longer than it should have.
When did the halflord stop calling her mother?
She couldn’t remember. She didn’t want to.
✧ ✧ ✧
After the long night drew to a close, Serenis was greeted with another morning sun, and another day of schooling. After what had transpired the night before, she’d been worried about Light’s condition, but…
“You know, a few years ago I used to ask Ilias to carry me on her back all the time. Flying was super fun! But this one time, we went up really high and it was SO cold. I don’t know how she manages to stay warm up there.”
“…Right.”
“My parents were freaking out because we were so high up. Both of them aren’t fond of heights…now that I think about it, I wonder if there are dragons that are scared of heights too? I heard baby birds can be scared of heights, so maybe baby dragons are the same?”
“…Right.”
As per usual, Serenis was barely listening. Contrary to her worries, the half girl was completely back to her old, chatty self – Light’s small talk once again occupied the vast majority of the dragonlord’s hearing throughout their day. If anything, the little girl seemed even more eager to talk than before.
Once again, Serenis was realizing silence is gold.
Meanwhile, Karas was busily continuing his history lecture, highlighting the final bits of a century-old war amongst humans. The crow-headed professor spared a momentary glance towards the dragon in his class, and began to add on an extra bit about the dragonkin’s involvement in it.
“Now, when the Akeian empire rose to power and devastated the continent, many remaining factions rallied to resist their advances. What we don’t commonly note is that the empire not only challenged nations, but dragons. The kin’s seclusion was temporarily terminated as they joined the fray under their leader against the empire’s advance.”
Karas cleared his throat. He looked to the class, scanning the room for any bright students.
“Now, let’s see if any of you know this. What is the name of the dragon that led their kin during this period?”
Serenis began to recall her brief quest on finding the current dragonlord. Raizel and Ilias had spoken of this particular subject.
‘This must be that dragon the younglings had spoken of.’
During their first encounter, the younglings had told Serenis of a war leader that was elected among the kin. Or, in the words of the steel dragon, the ‘crazy old hag.’ Unfortunately, the name hadn’t been mentioned.
Silence momentarily befell the room as other students failed to answer the question as well. The question practically had nothing to do with human affairs, nor the history of magic; there was no way a normal student would know such things.
But when silence continued on, a familiar voice soon spoke up from outside the open window.
“Ephea.”
The class turned towards the source of the noise in unison.
A peculiar individual stood outside, peeking inside with their crimson eyes. Her light purplish hair was a mess from flying. Her scaled red tail wagged left and right in excitement.
“It’s Ephea. Father told me her name before.”
Ilias stood outside the classroom window, her eyes fixed on Serenis who was fortunately(?) sitting right next to it.
When their eyes met, the youngling rapidly waved her hand from the other side of the window towards both her lord and her little sister sitting beside. It was almost as if she was reuniting with family she hadn’t seen in ages.
Light’s eyes twitched in disbelief.
Her sister had spoken then and there of wanting to visit the institute, but not even in her dreams did the half girl expect the visit to take place in the middle of class.
‘Does she not know she can’t just intrude like that?!...Wait, she’s a dragon, she probably never went to school…I guess it’s kinda normal…’
Then, the half girl’s eyes slowly shifted over to the fellow student beside her. A dragon who, for some reason, was attending a human institution.
‘…On second thought, I don’t know what’s normal anymore.’
Meanwhile, the other students were each under a small panic attack of their own.
An odd peer, they could grow used to. Students schooling teachers, they could grow used to. Dragons outside their class window? Nope.
Following Ilias’ sudden interruption, a pair of the institute’s security members appeared in the distance, running after the dragon standing outside.
“There she is!”
“M…miss! You can’t intrude ongoing classes like this!”
Ilias turned to face them in dismay. She raised her hands defensively as she stammered to answer.
“Huh?…But I’m outside!”
Once caught up, the two threateningly raised their staffs at the dragon girl.
Serenis watched the scene unfold in mild amusement.
‘Do they actually think that’s threatening to her?’
She still vividly remembered Ilias pummeling a steel dragon into the earth with a single strike. The youngling could probably level the entire facility here if she wanted to.
One may question why the institution’s security had elected to challenge a dragon with only a single pair of security guards, but truthfully, the pair was doing what they could; the question should be where the rest of the security was, while the only two that had shown face were shivering as if they were trapped in a blizzard.
At least these two were trying to do their jobs properly. One of them opened their trembling mouths, barking out a response that could’ve sounded much better without all the stammering.
“O-outside or not, you’re disturbing the class. This is n…n…now allowed!”
“Now allowed?”
“I meant not allowed!”
Ilias puffed her cheeks in discontent. Then, she turned towards the window and spoke to the class in its entirety.
“Am I really that disturbing? I’ll be quiet out here, I won’t say anything anymore…”
Normally, one would expect her to look towards the instructor to give her such permissions. Failing that, the two securities.
Instead, Ilias’ puppy eyes were directed towards a very uncomfortable pair of students who were both trying their hardest to say ‘I have nothing to do with this situation’ through their expressions. It was perhaps the very first time where Light had so adamantly refused to meet her big sister’s gaze.
Puzzled by the evident lack of attention, the red dragon pressed further.
“Light? Lord S-?“
“☐☐☐.”
“…Mnf? Mngh!”
Ilias’ mouth immediately shut itself, cutting her off mid-sentence. Her muffled voice tried to formulate additional words, but to no avail.
The dragonlord would’ve preferred not to use the binding spell again, but she had to – for fear the youngling would destroy her human ruse. Serenis glared at the red dragon outside, dearly wishing that no one had heard what she’d just whispered under her breath. Or was about to whisper under her breath.
“Go. Away.”
As the binding took effect, Ilias’ crimson wings spread out in an instant as she took flight, soaring off into the distance.
“…”
The securities watched Ilias fly away, relieved that they were successful in accomplishing their jobs. Though, neither of them were exactly sure how they did it.
Tap. Tap.
After tapping the chalkboard twice to regain attention, Karas nonchalantly continued his class as if nothing had happened at all.
“…Let’s resume class, shall we?”
Dragons in his class? Nothing new, happens every day.