Covered in sweat and bruises, Uehara dispersed his clones and sat down on the forest floor in the lotus position. His chakra veins were vibrating and he felt a stabbing pain from all three-hundred and sixty-one acupoints. The boosting effects of the aura-flowing state technique left his whole chakra network strained for the time-being.

[This infantile body of mine is hindering me more than I thought. As much as I want to speed up my growth process, it will affect my foundation in the long run.]

He had questioned his father and why Surins had such a slow growth rate compared to other demon races and the reason reinforced his idea to never tamper with his body.

‘Why we grow so slowly? It’s very simple. The century of infancy is to establish the best foundation possible for future growth. With your body nourishing itself with chakra, it’s the same as increasing the quality of the materials that would build the tower. A century is the necessary amount of time needed to build such a foundation. After all, a tower made of obsidian is much better than a tower made of normal stone.’

Even when he asked why it couldn’t be done at a later date, the reason Volkarin gave him was that an already erect building can’t be removed to improve the quality of the materials used in the foundation. That is why although he can barely handle a times-two increase in power, he won’t tamper with his future by increasing his growth rate.

There were also times when he tried speeding up the rate at which chakra would seep into his bone marrow and improve the quality over and over again but he felt an intense pain the first time he tried it a few years ago.

He will never forget how he got one of the worst thrashings of his life from his father after that event. The fact that he tried to speed up how the chakra and nature energy enhanced his own body was the same as trying to overdose.

With his currently throbbing body, he began absorbing nature energy to heal himself. Although he could use the nature energy he naturally has and produces, it takes too long to regenerate it since he’s still a dragon cub and doesn’t have much too spare anyway.

Meditating in silence, he analysed the experience he got from his clones. Dissecting and picking part the inadequacies in his combat techniques, he thoroughly immersed himself in reliving the recent battle.

After thirty-minutes of healing himself while analysing the gains of the training session, he got up and extended his hand upwards. His shirt and long-coat shot fell down from the sky like stones and landed in his grasp.

Finally done putting his clothes on, he re-tied his hair in a loose ponytail. Feeling his unkempt hair, he sighed.

[Before Chizuki, I never even cared. But now…]

Shaking his head, he lightly smiled.

“Enough. I can’t be sitting around like this with the sun shining so brightly. Sakura should’ve awoke long ago. I just need to get the parchment and the rest I can make myself.”

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A dark swirl covered him and he vanished.

…

Sakura was in a solemn mood. For the whole night, she couldn’t sleep due to the misunderstanding Uehara had about her. Her brother had always taught her to maintain a good image as a woman and avoid being seen as loose or promiscuous. But now, the man (boy) she had taken a liking to now had had misunderstood her as a casual woman.

Unlike Chizuki, she didn’t have a soul-connection with Uehara so the moment he jumped out the window, she completely lost track of him. With Uehara’s expert control in chakra, it was very difficult and bordering on impossible to find him by searching for his chakra-signature.

Looking at herself in the mirror, she calmed herself down by taking a few breaths.

“Um, Aoki-sama. Last night was a mistake so-no. This sounds too wrong.”

She tried again.

“Aoki-sama. I’m not a loose woman at all so you don’t have to worry about me-no! This one’s too weird.”

She kept trying to come up with excuses to dispel any doubts Uehara would have about her. If he saw her as a loose-woman, then her already slim chances would deteriorate into absolute nil.

Chizuki had already told her that Uehara doesn’t see them as potential partners in the slightest, largely due to their race as humans.

Sakura pouted when she remembered her most recent words.

‘No matter how much a pet shows you love, it will never even enter your mind to mate with it. In master’s eyes, humans are what livestock is to us. If we want master to look at us, then all we can do is elevate our existence.’

Her lips twitched in indignation when she recalled those words.

[Hmph!]

To this day, she still could not fully understand what made her so attracted to him. After all, Uehara was very, very ruthless to them. No training session has ever went by without them suffering injuries that would leave them completely bedridden were they not healed. He completely lacked any social qualities and was a workaholic who was always training even in his sleep. Any woman who had him as a partner would undoubtedly suffer from his lack of emotions.

But, Sakura wasn’t just any woman. Although not on the same level as Chizuki, she still saw Uehara as a potential partner. Unlike Chizuki, it has nothing to do with love. There were only two reasons. Power and respect. In her eyes, Uehara was a very powerful person that she completely admired and respected ever since she was a little girl. In fact, growing up and going through her teenage years with Uehara around set her bar for a man very high. It was to the point that she even felt disgust when other males tried to court her. It was also the reason why so many noble scions were killed by her. She had absolutely no tolerance for “boys”. Compared to Uehara, they weren’t even worth mentioning.

That is why even though Uehara was ruthless and rarely showed any emotion, there was also a sense of peace that she could not feel with any other person. As much as she hated to think about it, even her brother, Hiroshi Mangetsu, didn’t give her this sense of peace and stability.

This was all attributed to how meticulous and hard-working Uehara was. Deep inside, she knew she would never suffer a loss if she had Uehara as a partner. As for his current childlike body, it was not strange for young boys to already have partners. The case example is of the recently deceased Emperor Go-Ichijo who was engaged to Fujiwara Akiko when he was eight.

Sighing, she was about to go and tidy the bed she tossed and tussled in all night when she suddenly saw Uehara sitting on the window sill. His head was tilted as he looked at her with an expressionless gaze.

Sakura stuttered.

“A-Aoki-sama!”

Uehara jumped down from the window sill and removed a strand of hair from his face.

“Your chastity matters very little to me. What you do with it and who you give it to is of no concern to me. As long as you continue improving in strength.”

Sakura wanted to clear the misunderstanding but Uehara cut her off.

“Come. I want to get the scroll parchment by the end of today. Clean up here and I’ll meet you at that shop.”

He then vanished, leaving Sakura alone in the room.

She sat on the bed and crossed her arms.

“Hmph!”

Lying down on the bed, she curled up in a foetal position.

“Stupid Aoki-sama! I’m not loose!”