Lucia quickly stored the egg in her white ring. She had the rings on the same hand so she could do it discreetly without anyone knowing. She then turned towards the cage that had the dragon and wondered how she would bring it back with her to the academy without attracting attention. She couldn't store it inside her ring because it was a living creature so she was stuck in a dilemma.

"Hmmm... what to do..."

'Oi, girly...'

"Eh?"

A voice suddenly sounded inside her head, it was the voice of an unfamiliar woman. The voice obviously didn't come from Aurellia who was next to her. Lucia quickly looked around, trying to find whoever it was that just talked to her. It was only Aurellia that was close to her, there was no other person nearby. She looked confused, but then she just shrugged her shoulders.

"Maybe I'm just hearing things."

'Yeah, you're hearing me.'

"!!!"

The dragon that was inside the cage was currently eyeing her and Lucia looked back at the serpentine dragon.

"Y-You?"

'Of course, it's me. Hrmmm... I like your soul, it's pure. Now hurry up and let me out of here.'

"Uhhh..." Lucia only stared back in amazement. The monster could actually communicate with her! Aurellia told Lucia that she would go and collect her items and left her there next to the cage.

"You can talk!"

'Of course I can! Well, maybe not talk, but I can still communicate with you.'

"Cool! It's just like what Cel said!"

'Listen girly, you can just communicate with me using your mind. Don't speak up so loudly, I don't want the others to know...'

"Oh!" Lucia then began focusing and communicating with her mind. 'Okay!'

'Quick learner, well come on. Let me out. And unbind these wretched things!' The dragon said as it wriggled its body uncomfortably. The chains restraining its body were obviously not to her liking.

'But... you'll run away...right?'

'Hah? Well, I don't have the strength to do so! And besides those guards will probably restrain me if I try anything.'

'How do I know you're telling the truth?'

'A dragon cannot lie!'

'...'

'...'

The two remained silent and Lucia began scrutinizing the dragon, staring deeply into its eyes. Seeing as the dragon was only staring back at her calmly, Lucia shrugged and pulled out her katana. A staff member nearby saw this and quickly scrambled towards her.

"M-Miss! This is an incredibly rare creature! You don't plan on simply... killing it do you?"

"Hah? No way, I bought this thing using my money, why would I kill it?" Lucia retorted.

"Eh? So... why pull out a... sword?"

"Oh. I just wanna release it now since it'd be hard to push the cage around."

"R-Release it?"

"Yeah."

"Did you form a pact with it already? If you already have, we can immediately unlock the cage and remove its restraints. If not, then please leave it inside the cage. The last time we tried to move it to a bigger cage, it started to rampage around."

"..."

Lucia turned silent and quietly eyed the dragon. It looked a bit anxious. The dragon lowered its head and spat something out. The object flew out towards Lucia and she quickly caught it. The object in her palm was a drop of azure colored blood. The staff member widened his eyes seeing this and Lucia turned her attention back towards the dragon and asked, 'What's this for?'

'That man said we needed a pact, so I'm forming a pact with you.'

'...with me?'

'Yes! At least your soul is pure... I don't want to form a pact with a tainted or uncultured soul. Actually I don't want to form a pact with any of you beings!'

'...'

'But, it seems that I won't gain my freedom if I don't do so. So hurry up girly, drink the blood and form a pact with me. This way I can be freed from this awful place.'

Lucia nodded silently and quickly drank the blood. The staff next to her was about to stop her, but then regretfully shook his head once he saw the blood go down her throat. Inside her cloak, Silver felt a little uncomfortable and popped its head out from underneath the cloak. The dragon saw the white pup and it widened its eyes.

'A Fenrir?!'

Silver tilted its head in confusion and barked back at the dragon. Meanwhile, Lucia's body began to feel a little bit hot and she felt a little uncomfortable after she ingested the dragon's blood, but after a short moment, her body returned back to normal. She felt something pricking the skin on her upper arm. She quickly rolled up the cloak and saw an azure tattoo forming on her arm. It had a simple design much like the dragon in the cage's figure. It was a coiling oriental dragon tattoo that was azure in color.

'That's the symbol of our pact. Now can you please let me out of here?'

"Sure... hey, I've formed a pack with her. Please let her out now."

The staff looked a little regrettable, but he quickly complied with her orders and unlocked the cage. He called out for some guards to come over and they helped him unlock the bindings that were restraining the dragon. The dragon didn't go on a rampage after its bindings were undone and instead just wriggled its body before nodding towards Lucia, who was now in a binding pact with it.

Once the staff member and guards backed away a little, the dragon slowly got out of the cage. Upon coming out of the cage a small commotion started to erupt because of the sudden development. Now that its body was finally free, Lucia saw how big the dragon actually was. The dragon's body had a length of at least 10 or so meters. It was pretty long despite being able to fit snugly inside that cage. She looked up at the dragon and asked, 'Hey, is this just how big you are or can you adjust your size just like Silver here?'

'Hmmm? You mean that Fenrir? I guess I can, but I have a better option... though I don't want to transform in front of all these... things.'

'Transform?'

'Let's head out, girly.'

'My name's Lucia by the way! Stop calling me girly all the time!'

'...okay.'

Aurellia came back in a hurry when she saw the commotion. She paled a little when she saw the dragon out of its cage, currently floating in front of Lucia. To her, it seemed as if the dragon was staring down at the girl menacingly, when in fact the two were only communicating with their minds. She was about to call out to Lucia when suddenly, the dragon began moving its body. It moved in a circle around Lucia, spinning in a clockwise direction. Mist began pouring out of its body and soon it enveloped the dragon and the girl together.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

A gust of wind began blowing in the large hall and the mist began to glow faintly, then suddenly, the wind stopped blowing and the hall returned to its peace. As the mist began to fade, everyone finally saw that the girl in the black cloak and the serpentine dragon was no longer present inside the hall.

The two had suddenly vanished was what everyone thought. Aurellia immediately began panicking. She rushed forwards and found no trace of the girl or the dragon. She quickly dashed out of the auction building and immediately began searching for the girl. She even contacted her faction and issued an emergency faction quest.

"Search for Lucia Yukihime! Any info about her whereabouts will earn you all faction points! Depending on the info, you'll receive more points! Also, don't anyone try and harm or force her! This is only a search so keep that in mind!!"

Many of the idle members of the faction saw the new quest that was put up and they immediately got busy. Though they were puzzled why their faction was making a move on the one person their leader told them not to provoke. The entire faction immediately set off to do the quest, but their movements and actions didn't escape the prying eyes of the other factions. They began wondering why the Royal Foxes were looking for the girl. They could only speculate and not find the real reason.

The girl in question, however, had just arrived at a rocky terrain. When the dragon began spinning around her, Lucia was naturally curious and asked which the dragon responded that she would bring them out of the auction house. She took a quick look at her surroundings and felt that it was a little familiar. Like a place where her party had been to before when doing a quest.

"Ah! Isn't this the Anglaria Mountains close to the city?"

'That's right gir—Lucia.'

"Well, since we're all alone now, explain what you meant by 'transform'!"

Right after her words, the large dragon's scales began glowing in a brilliant azure light. Lucia shielded her eyes since the light was a bit glaring. Once the glowing stopped Lucia took a look ahead and couldn't find the large body of the dragon anymore. In its place was a naked and voluptuous young lady. She didn't look much older than Lucia, maybe just 3-4 years older.

Lucia's eyes widened a little and she immediately asked, "Are you that dragon?!"

"Yes, I am. My name's Yunaria, nice to meet you, Lucia."

"Ah! Nice to meet you too, Yuna!"

"Yuna? Hmmm I like the sound of that. By the way... you wouldn't happen to have any spare clothes around would you?" the humanoid form Yunaria asked unabashedly.

"Oh! Here you go!" Lucia quickly took out some clothes that she had just bought earlier today and gave them to the naked girl. Yuna quickly donned the clothing, but felt that they were a little too tight.

"Don't you have anything else?"

"Sorry, I don't have anything your size...let's just head back to the city and go buy some!"

"...alright, though I disdain to go back to such a place."

"Don't worry. We won't be going back to the auction house. We'll be shopping in a different store."

"..."

Lucia took another look at Yuna. The humanoid form of the dragon was a really stunning beauty. She seemed to be around 17-18 years old and she had curves at just the right places, her face was decorated with small azure scales on the sides of her cheeks and also on the top of her long elf-like ears. She had antlers on top of her head and her hair was a wavy azure color that stretched all the way down to her buttocks.

There were no whiskers on her face which Lucia thought would be a little amusing if the girl did have those on her face. Yuna had golden eyes, a bit similar to Cecil's, except her eyes had vertical slits like a dragon's eyes. That wasn't the only dragon-like feature she had. She also had a long dragon tail growing out from her rump, it was covered in brilliant azure scales and Lucia could see that her fingers and feet were also covered in the same scales and her nails were claw-like.

After taking in her features, Lucia then spoke up, "I'd like to ask... but what's a pact?"

Yuna was just about to walk in the direction of Angla City, but then she stumbled after hearing Lucia's question.

"Y-You... you formed a pact with me without even knowing what it was?!"

"Uhuh~ so, what is it?" Lucia innocently asked.

Yuna had a dumbfounded look on her face. She began pinching her eyebrows a little in exasperation and began explaining.

"A pact... is something that's mutually formed between 2 individuals. One can form a pact using an intermediary like blood or some other object. A pact ties the two individuals together in a bond that entwines their souls together."

"...okay."

"Simply put, it means that my life is your life and your life is my life."

"I see. Is there anything else?"

"What do you mean by anything else?! Do you even understand what you just did?!"

"Well, yeah, it means that our lives are connected now right? So if I die, you die and vice-versa, right?"

"...yes, except since I was the initiator of our pact, your life won't be in any danger if I die. You'll just experience a momentary pain of loss that originates from your soul."

"Okay~"

"...You seriously don't get what I meant by my life is your life do you."

"Nope~"

Yuna let out another exasperated sigh at Lucia's rather uncaring response. The dragon girl began explaining in detail what it meant by them forming a pact and the latter just listened attentively since it seemed to be extremely important, life-changing even.