No, I don’t deserve to be with you. My parents... What will they do if they find out? I... But the warmth I felt in her hand flowed through me. It was like optimism was being injected into my very soul. Before I knew it, I was running alongside her.
Out of the blue, she began laughing. How long has it been since I’ve last heard this?
“Wh-Where are we going?” I asked.
“Back to my house!”
“Huh? But I—”
“But nothing. Come on. Let’s go!”
I glanced back at my house. Can I really leave? Are my parents going to be okay? Is it really okay for me to leave?
“Don’t worry, they’ll be fine,” Soreya said as if reading my mind. “They already gave me their blessing to take you away.”
“They did...?”
Suddenly, she stopped and held me by the shoulders. “I understand, Ca’al. I really do, but it’s gonna be okay. I swear. Look, I’m not gonna lie to you. The road ahead isn’t gonna be easy, but I get the feeling that as long as we’re together, we’re gonna do okay.”
Together with Soreya... My heart began to feel as light as a feather. “Am I gonna live with you?”
“Um, in a sense. ’Cause, well, actually, I got chosen to be a Blade Saint candidate. Amazing, right?”
My eyes widened. “That’s amazing! Congratulations, but...I can’t go with you. I wasn’t chosen.” My heart sank again. She’s going to leave without me. “Does that mean I can’t see you anymore?”
“You’re not gonna get rid of me that easily,” she said, ruffling my hair. “When we get back to my house, we’re gonna talk to the Guardian and get everything sorted. I already gave that baldy a piece of my mind. I mean, I had to, because he was making the dumbest decision of his life. We were actually in the middle of a pretty important discussion before I ran out to get you, but”—she turned to me, a wide grin on her face—“it’s a discussion that should be continued with both Blade Saint candidates!”
Both...Blade Saint candidates? But I wasn’t chosen. Wait, does that mean... Did she... Is this really happening? Am I dreaming? I can leave here? I can stay with Soreya?
“Heh heh... Ha ha ha ha!” Before I knew it, I was laughing uncontrollably. I couldn’t see straight anymore from the tears. When was the last time I cried because I was happy? I...I can’t even remember.
She took me by the hand and continued pulling me forward. Through the watery blur of my tears, I barely made out a bright wide smile as brilliant as the sun stretching across her face.
“This isn’t where we end, Ca’al! Not even close!”
✦ ✦ ✦
856 C-5, Rain Month 2, Moon 28
The elf professor blankly stared at me as I stood before her.
“Would you...mind repeating that for me?” She blinked with disbelief.
“I’ve finished. Here are my papers.”
“It’s...hardly been two hours. Are you sure? I know I might have egged you on to finish quickly, but answering questions randomly isn’t going to give you a good grade.”
“There’s no need for concern. I’ve answered them all correctly. Am I free to go now?”
“Two hours still remain in the allotted time. Submitting your exam this instant isn’t necessary. You still have ample time to double-check your answers.”
“As I said, there’s no need. I’m satisfied with my responses and hereby submit my exam. I see no need to stay here any longer, so I’ll take my leave.”
“Wait, I’ll call Karen—”
“No need. Remember the deal?”
“But...” The professor seemed troubled.
“I’ll return before the time expires. I simply wish to stretch my legs a little.”
“Are you going to be okay? You’re new to the school, aren’t you? I can accompany you so you don’t get lost.”
“No need,” I said, waving my hand to dismiss her suggestion. “I’ve got a very strong grasp of this school’s layout. I’ll be perfectly fine on my own.”
The professor finally let out a sigh and relaxed, leaning back in her chair. “Okay, then. I’ll be here if you need anything.”
I nodded and nonchalantly strolled out of the classroom. I was honestly disappointed by the exam. I thought it would’ve posed more of a challenge, especially considering how confident the elf professor had been acting.
There had been the magic theory section, which had been all basic knowledge for elder dragons. Then there had been the arithmetic section, which had taken me no time at all to get through. The general science section had been so straightforward it’d felt like a joke. The only slightly challenging section had been history since I hadn’t known their history, but it hadn’t taken too long for me to discern what the answers had been.
Then again, maybe it’s unfair to judge them by our education standards. Since elder dragons could memorize and understand everything at a glance, it only took a few years at most for us to learn everything we needed. As if there is any need for further proof of our superiority.
At any rate, temporarily free of my shackle known as the human, I was free to move around as I wished. I might even leave the school itself if I wanted to, or I could immediately go search for the Blade Saint. However, at this point in time, there was only one destination I wished to go to.
I opened a nearby window, and a warm breeze ran past my face, ruffling my hair. A smile crept across my face. Though I knew I was only in this time and place as a result of being the sole survivor of the carnage that’d eradicated my people, I couldn’t help but enjoy this moment of peace. These moments were so few and far between with how the past few years had gone. It’d been all too long since I’d last been able to simply cruise through the sky, the sun on my scales.
Right now, the limiter prevented me from fully transforming into my dragon form. But even if I could, due to me pretending to require asylum, I was supposed to act as if I were a human. Critically, they didn’t fly, nor did they jump out of windows for quicker traversal. Truly inferior creatures.
But either way, there wasn’t a single soul present, meaning I didn’t have to worry about being seen. I did one final scan of the area before leaping from the window.
The wind whipped past my face, and the clothes on me billowed as I steadily approached the ground. Though to the untrained eye, it might look like I was trying to harm myself, I had absolutely no intention of doing that. However, even though I knew I’d be safe, I still had some reservations about landing on human legs.
I might not be able to fully transform into my dragon form, but I was still able to partially transform, despite it only being purely cosmetic. Logically, I knew that even if my body had the appearance of a human, it wasn’t. Still, logic wasn’t enough to block out my instincts, which were practically screaming that falling from this height was dangerous with my legs in human form. That was why, right before my head would’ve made contact with the ground, I flipped in the air and landed on my now partially transformed legs, which I’d shrunk to about a sixteenth of their usual dragon size.
The ground shook slightly as I landed, spewing dust in all directions. Fortunately, the stone-paved path beneath me showed no signs of being destroyed. As I crouched from the impact of falling from the fourth floor, I stored the energy from my fall and then used it to propel myself upward back into the sky. How joyous is it to be in the air once more, no matter how brief!
Part of my objective in doing this was to experience this sensation of flying once more, but the other part was to confirm the location of my destination. I’d only been there twice, once with me suddenly appearing there and the other time with the human bringing me there through a portal. Because of that, I didn’t really know the way there on foot. It’s not that I have reservations about using a portal because I don’t. I simply want to reexperience what it means to be a dragon.
I surveyed the campus as I hung in the air. It wasn’t long before I located the grassy hill where I’d arrived and further confirmed that no one was around there.
I created a compact membrane of mana in the sky to spring myself off of, propelling myself forward. The wind whipped past my face as I rapidly approached my destination. Right before making contact with the ground, I cast wind magic to soften my landing, so instead of leaving a crater, I left no indication of my landing whatsoever.
Not too shabby, I thought as I rated my movement from the classroom to the grassy hill I’d arrived on just two days ago.
I walked over to the glyph that I’d left yesterday. Though it’d only been half a day since I’d set up the glyph to regenerate mana and form a cache that I could draw from, I wanted to check to see the rate at which it was expanding. This entire process was essentially uncharted territory to me since I’d never done this before, so I was eager to see how far it’d progressed.
I crouched down and traced the outline of the glyph, activating it. As I did, my eyes widened. It’s already generated this much? In simple terms, my full mana capacity was roughly a trillion units—enough to power a sizable human country for at least a year. However, with the limiter on, I could barely get to ten thousand. Right now, the glyph, which had started from three measly units, had regenerated to five thousand.
It wasn’t nearly enough for me to draw upon to fight at full power, but the fact that it’d regenerated this much in this little time was impressive to say the least. This gave me an idea for further tests; five thousand units of mana could fuel many different glyph creations. I had approximately one hour and a half before the human returned to the classroom. The clock’s ticking. I’ll need to hurry.