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As the night of training drew on, I sparred with Professor Sageira using my Primal Aura again and again to the point where I could barely move by the time she called an end to the night’s training. All the while, my parents watched on.

When I trudged back to where my parents were sitting, Mum had a worried look on her face as she started fussing over me and wiping the dirt from my face with her handkerchief. As for Dad, I could see that he had his thinking face on as he looked between me and Professor Sageira.

After Professor Sageira was done packing up her stuff, she came over to us. But just as she was about to say something, Dad stepped toward her and bowed as respectfully as he would towards a king, “Lady Drackot, I would like to start by thanking you for taking care of our son.”

“You are most welcome, young man, but I assume there is a second part to your sentence.” Professor Sageira replied.

“Em... yes… what I mean to ask is, am I capable of learning to do the same thing as my son?” Dad asked.

This question actually gave Professor Sageira pause. “Technically, I do not see why not. But if my predictions are correct, it would be a lot harder for you than for Luke,” she said.

At her declaration, both Dad and I asked, “Why?” at the same time.

“The main reason is that, unlike your son, you have stopped physically growing, and because mana is a metaphysical energy that very much depends on your body to be a physical container for said metaphysical energy, it takes quite some measure of adaptability. Luke had spent four years tempering his mana pathways while his physical body grew to adapt to the stress, but if you started training as Luke did, your grown body would not be as malleable as a growing child would be. It will most likely be a slow and painful process as your mana pathways are reforged.” she replied.

After a few seconds of processing this information, Dad said, “Regardless of the foreseen difficulty, I would like to try, and with your permission, I would like to adopt Primal Aura as an Ironcrest family technique.”

I looked at my dad and could not help but be impressed. I was mentally face-palmed myself for not having the same idea. Having a family technique, especially for a newly established Baron house, would be a massive boon to the family name, especially if this technique shows excellent results in any upcoming wars.

“I don’t see why not. This would also give me data on how this process affects adults. But only on one condition: you always come together with your son. When the school term starts, I will have even less time than I do now, and I will not see it wasted. Do we have an agreement?”

Without hesitation, Dad agreed, and Professor Sageira said she would see us tomorrow night before transforming into a dragon and flying us back home.

When we got home, the look on my parents’ faces told me that they wanted to talk, but I was too tired to do so and told them we would talk at lunch tomorrow.

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***

After waking up and having lunch, the servants were once again asked to clear out after pouring tea.

From the expressions on my parents' faces, I could see that they had obviously disagreed on something while I was not around, and I was about to learn their thoughts.

“Alden, Luke,” uh-oh, Mum called Dad by his name, that is not a good sign. “The both of you got yourselves into something serious without even so much as consulting me, especially so when the both of you are making deals with an elder dragon, and if what Luke said is true, a very old and powerful one.”

“But, Dear, if Luke or I are successful at stabilizing this new technique, it could lead to the prosperity of our family and future descendants. It is too big an opportunity to pass up.” Dad protested.

“But it is too dangerous. There have been tales of elder dragons wiping out small kingdoms on a whim. How can we trust this elder dragon?” Mum shot back.

“To be fair, Mum, in the few years I have known her, she is more of a bookworm than some rampaging dragon that goes around pillaging kingdoms. Besides, from what I have learned of her kind in my many talks with her, it is mostly the younger dragons who grew old and smart enough to learn the civilized languages that go on a rampage while trying to carve out a turf for themselves, and she is well past those days.” I said in defense of Professor Sageira’s character.

My statement clearly made Mum’s eyes glitter with interest in what I just said, but she quickly schooled her features back to looking stern, “That is beside the point, how can we trust magic beasts, especially intelligent ones? They do not share or understand the same values we from the civilized races have, how can we trust her to keep her promises and not just kill or enslave us the moment she gets what data she wants from the both of you?”

“Come on, Mum. She has been integrated among the civilized races long before our kingdom even existed. Sure, she may not share our values, but I am pretty sure she has been around long enough to understand them. As for whether we can trust her, I would say we can trust her as much as we do any other person, but there is one major difference. Power, of which she has a lot, both personal and political, and from what I understand of her personality and beliefs among dragon kind, the strong have no need to lie to those so much weaker than they are, and to her, we are ants.” I said.

Not knowing if what I was saying was true or not, Mum just folded her arms and said, “Be that as it may, it is still not wise to trust her so willingly. Especially you! Dear husband!”

With that, Mum pretty much ended that line of conversation, but Dad and I knew that this talk was far from over, especially for Dad.

After lunch was done, Mum and Dad went to put their affairs in order. This actually meant that most of the administrative duties would fall to Mum to make up for Dad’s soon-to-be nocturnal schedule.

As for me, I spent the rest of the day in my workshop to polish up my skills, and now that I am away from prying eyes, I can try the different techniques I could only see people forge on internet videos. One such forging technique is Pattern-Welded Steel, or more commonly known as Damascus steel. I have yet to see anyone using Damascus steel, so I am hoping it will be a hit among the people of this world.

After I master the art of making Damascus Steel products, I intend to progress to Traditional Damascus Steel, also known as Wootz Steel. However, I am fuzzy on the details of how it is made because it is not as popular as Pattern-Welded Steel, thus not as many videos about it. However, that is for future me to worry about.

For now, I have a bunch of steel that needs to be tested, categorized, and sorted for its carbon content. Then, I need to find a way to cut it into even thin slices… haaa… so much to do, so little time. Why did I not think of this while I was lazing in bed a few days ago?