856 C-1, Rain Month 2, Moon 27
Everywhere I looked, there was only darkness. I couldn’t tell what was up, what was down, if I was floating, or on the ground.
Did I die? Did that human kill me before I could complete my mission? I clenched my teeth in anger. No! It wasn’t supposed to be this way! I need to kill him to save my people! With him dead, they won’t have to suffer, and father...he’d still be alive.
In the midst of my anguish, I heard voices, but I had to focus my ears to clearly hear what they were saying.
“Oooh! I’d love to dissect her!” a woman said.
Dissect who? Me? I’d like to see you try to even lay a single finger on me before I tear you apart limb by limb.
“She’s still alive, Doctor,” a familiar girl’s voice said sternly.
“Oh, no problem! I can put her back together, easy-peasy! Plus, she already has a lot of wounds, right? What’s a few more?”
“Absolutely not!”
“What? Do you think this white coat is just for show? You can trust me. I’m a doctor!” the woman proudly declared. “Besides, her regeneration’s kicking in, and she’s still knocked out, right? She won’t miss a few— Eh, I’m not gonna bother bullshitting you. She won’t miss a few organs or anything, right?”
“At least try to cover up your intentions!”
“See, I thought about it for a minute, but then I decided. What’s the point? Time’s a wastin’, y’know? Chop-chop.”
I began checking my claws, eyes still closed. I was ready to attack this so-called doctor if I sensed that she took even one step closer to me.
“Anyway, the answer is no—it’s always going to be no. Besides, regardless of how you act, you are a doctor. Don’t you want your patients to be alive, healthy, and intact with all their body parts accounted for?”
“Yeah, of course, but y’know, it’d be nice to get something as, like, a token of appreciation. Not like a trophy...but also, very much like a trophy, if you know what I mean.”
“I...am never seeking medical help from you.”
“Too late. I already got my trophy,” she said, giggling mischievously.
“Wha— Ugh... Whatever. Listen. She’s a guest in this realm. You can’t do anything to her. End of story. I won’t allow it, the Guardians won’t allow it, and the school won’t either.”
Yes. If you know what’s good for you, never threaten an elder dragon, lest you are burned so thoroughly that not even your ashes remain.
“Aw, sure you can. It’ll be our little secret. What do you want in exchange? Oh, how about Ca’al’s latest physical test results?”
“Wh-Who’d want those?! A-At any rate, it’s a crime to give out private information like that to unauthorized parties.”
“Hmm, maybe if you became his spouse, it’d be okay for me to share that information.”
“S-Spouse?!”
“I can make that happen. I have connections. Come on, just turn your head away for a little bit...”
“I—”
“Nobody’s touching me!” I roared, my eyes flying open as I sat straight up.
My vision slowly came into focus, the light flooding into my eyes. In front of me was a room of white filled with beds, curtains, and jarred medicine. And then, there were two humans in front of me. The first was an adult woman with a long white coat, blue eyes behind a pair of glasses, and unkempt lavender hair tied into a messy bun with what seemed to be various writing instruments. The other was the human girl who’d accused me of being a demon and dared to challenge me. In this bright room, I could see that she had green eyes and long, straight brown hair neatly tied behind her head with a black bow.
“Aw, she’s awake. If you were a little quieter, I might have been able to cut her open.” The doctor pouted.
Perhaps sensing my discontent, the human girl quickly chimed in. “No one is cutting you. Please excuse this idiot of a doctor. She takes jokes too far,” the human girl said, shooting the doctor a glare.
“I wasn’t really joking—”
“Please let me do the talking!” the human girl practically screamed.
The doctor sighed disappointedly and folded her arms like a pouting child. “Fine.”
“Thank you. Let me start over,” the girl said, clearing her throat. “My name is Karen Aporenzi. I’m one of the Guardians—”
“In training,” the doctor interrupted.
“In training, in this realm,” the human girl finished, shooting an annoyed glance at the doctor.
“Oh, you’re one of those worthless neutral border observers,” I scoffed.
The doctor put her hand over her mouth, stifling a laugh.
“I...wouldn’t call my order ‘worthless,’ but yes, that’s us.”
I rolled my eyes. “That was the kindest adjective I could find to describe your kind.”
“You know, I don’t think you needed to use an adjective at all,” she said with a wry smile. “But anyway, as you probably know, our job is to make sure no one travels illegally between realms. Which brings me to my main point: You’re trespassing.”
“Hey, you’re not going to introduce me?” the doctor asked, interrupting the human girl.
“I didn’t think it’d be necessary.”
“Little Miss Elder Dragon, don’t you want to know my name?”
“I couldn’t care less.”
Shock and disappointment filled her face at my response.
“Indulging her will be faster at this point,” the human girl sighed. “Let me introduce you two. This is the doctor of our academy who saved you, Doctor Paunsasoy.”
“‘Saved’ me? A human?” I scoffed.
“Oh, but I’m not a human,” the doctor said. Suddenly, bat-like wings emerged from her back, and her nails grew uncomfortably long.
“She’s a succubus,” the human explained.
To say that this was unprecedented in my knowledge of succubi would be an understatement. All I knew them as were sexually motivated demons, typically equipped with a twisted sense of humor. However, the individual in front of me demonstrated no such attributes. If she hadn’t transformed, I never would have guessed.
“Yes, I’m in as much disbelief as you are,” the human sighed, noticing my confusion. “I don’t know how she was allowed to have this job. She causes so many more problems than she solves. She’s not very picky when it comes to who she takes interest in.”
“Oh, you flatter me,” the doctor said abashedly.
“That wasn’t meant to be flattery,” the human dryly quipped. “As much as I hate to admit it though, she is a talented doctor. There’s nobody in this world other than her whom I simultaneously would and wouldn’t trust my life with.”
“Aw, shucks,” the doctor playfully giggled and put her hands to her cheeks as if she was embarrassed.
“I cannot believe that a flippant being like this treated me.”
“Yeah, it’s a mystery how she’s talented with that kind of personality,” the human said with a wry smile.
“Well, when you get as intimate a knowledge behind the inner workings of all kinds of bodies as I do, you pick up a thing or two. Plus, I’m just a genius like that,” the doctor said proudly. “But, honestly, your body did most of the work. An elder dragon’s regenerative power is really impressive... Are you sure I can’t interest you in being opened up?”
Perhaps sensing my anger, the human quickly interjected. “J-Jokes aside...”
“That wasn’t a joke!” the doctor huffed.
“The truth of the matter is that you are trespassing in this realm. I need to know your purpose, otherwise I will have to send you back.”
“Can you send her back?” the doctor asked.
The human froze before shooting the doctor a sharp glare as if to scold her for opening her mouth. Sounds like a no.
I quickly assessed my current strength; however, to my great dismay, no matter how I looked at it, I was in no condition to overpower these two. I still required at least a day. This eliminated the first option I’d thought of: killing them and running off to complete my objective.
In the first place, I couldn’t even tell if the hourglass had properly sent me back far enough in time. The human had said on multiple occasions that this was a different realm, meaning that there was a high chance that the Blade Saint wasn’t here. Perhaps it would be best to have her send me back to my original realm—if she was actually capable of doing so. That way, I could recuperate with my kind before going out to find that accursed butcher. But also...where is the hourglass? Did it disappear after expending its mana? I suppose that’s what should have happened, but still... I began scanning the room.
“Are you...looking for something?” the human asked.
“No...just observing these unfamiliar surroundings.” I don’t sense its mana signature in the immediate vicinity.
I felt the human’s gaze fall on my neck. “By the way, I’ve been meaning to ask—you had some heavy injuries—were you in a fight before arriving here? Some kind of war? It must’ve been a tough one if an elder dragon like yourself was injured so badly.”
I needed more information before I could act any further. It was important that I chose my words carefully to properly steer this conversation into one where I could get answers to the questions I had.
“Before that, tell me, what year is this?” I asked.
“You...want to know the date?”
“What’s it to you?” I growled.
“It’s year 856, more precisely Rain Month 2, moon 27,” the human said, hurriedly.
Year 856?! That means that I only went back seventeen years!
The surprise must’ve shown on my face because the human asked me, “Are you okay?”
“I don’t need your worry, human,” I snarled.
Seventeen years in the past means that the Blade Saint is most likely in his adolescent years now. I need further information about this realm and my whereabouts.
“You said this is a school, right? What kind of school has humans and succubi in it?”
“This is the Saint Aliriheim Academy. It’s a place where all beings, regardless of race, converge to learn together. If the name sounds familiar, that’s because the school was founded by the first Blade Saint, Saint Aliriheim.”
The first Blade Saint? There are more than one of them? Logically, unless they are still alive, that couldn’t be the name of the Blade Saint I fought in the future, right? It was now dawning on me that I didn’t even know the name of the Blade Saint I’d fought.
My mind was racing. Though I’d always assumed that the Blade Saint I’d fought had originated in my realm, if this academy was named after the first Blade Saint, it was possible that the one I’d fought was in this very realm. I commanded my face as best I could to not show any of my excitement. All I need to do now is patiently observe and guide the conversation in a way so that they’ll inadvertently reveal crucial information without them even realizing my intentions.