Chapter 2: She Doesn’t Seem That Scary After All

Xuan Xi was awakened by a strange sound.

The sound wasn’t loud, like something gently vibrating, the frequency rising and falling, carrying an indescribable rhythm.

She opened her eyes groggily and realized the sound was coming from across the screen.

She glanced at the clock on the nightstand and saw it was only 5:13 AM.

Outside, the sky hadn’t brightened yet, and across the screen, Sigrdrífa was already sitting up.

She was cross-legged on the bed, hands folded over her knees, eyes closed, breathing steady and slow. That strange sound was coming from her—no, to be precise, from inside her.

The sound seemed to be some kind of resonant method of cultivation. Xuan Xi listened curiously for a while, then suddenly remembered what it was.

Meditation. It was said to be a cultivation method used by the Western Dragons, tempering the Dragon Core through specific breathing rhythms and elemental resonance within the body, thereby enhancing one’s strength and bloodline.

She had only read about it in books before but had never seen it with her own eyes.

She wasn’t sure if she should keep watching.

It seemed like she was spying on someone else’s cultivation, and common sense told her that wasn’t a very polite thing to do.

Just as she was about to look away, she saw Sigrdrífa suddenly open her eyes.

Her amethyst-colored pupils gleamed like two stars in the dim room before dawn, her gaze piercing through the translucent screen and landing squarely on Xuan Xi’s face.

“What are you looking at.”

It wasn’t an accusation; the tone was still cold, but Xuan Xi noticed a difference from yesterday’s “keep away” coldness.

Today’s “cold” had an extra layer—like the slight embarrassment of being caught doing something private.

“Woken up by the noise,” Xuan Xi confessed honestly.

“That meditation sound of yours is kind of… like a bee.”

The corner of Sigrdrífa’s mouth twitched almost imperceptibly.

“…I’m not meditating.”

“Then what are you doing?”

“…”

Xuan Xi waited a few seconds, but the other girl showed no sign of answering.

Fine, I won’t ask, she thought, turning over to get some more sleep.

But just as she closed her eyes, a voice came from across the screen, much softer than before, as if half-muffled by the blanket.

“…I’m not meditating. This is detoxification.”

Xuan Xi’s eyes flew open.

“What?”

“Elemental Detoxification. Dragons with an S-rank bloodline or above accumulate excess elemental residue in their bodies, which must be expelled daily through resonance in order to advance further.” Sigrdrífa’s speech was a little faster than yesterday, as if she were rushing to get the words out.

“It’s not meditation, though it does increase strength as well.”

Xuan Xi blinked.

She suddenly felt that this aloof young lady wasn’t so hard to approach after all—at least she was willing to answer her questions.

“Oh,” Xuan Xi said. “Then go ahead. I won’t watch.”

She turned over again, facing the wall, and pulled the blanket up to her ears.

Across the screen, there was a few seconds of silence, and then the buzzing sound started again, only this time the frequency was slightly lower, as if it had been adjusted.

Xuan Xi closed her eyes, a small smile curving at the corners of her mouth.

After dawn, their paths barely crossed.

When Xuan Xi got up, Sigrdrífa’s bed was already made, the blanket folded neatly, the pillow placed exactly in the middle—the whole bed looked like no one had slept in it.

She was already gone.

Xuan Xi washed up, changed into her academy uniform, and glanced in the mirror at the marking beneath her right eye.

In the morning light, the marking showed a faint dark gold, as if drawn on her skin with an extremely fine brush.

She touched it with her finger and felt nothing—smooth, like touching ordinary skin.

But she knew this marking wasn’t an ordinary birthmark.

Sometimes it would faintly burn, especially when her emotions ran high. Her foster father had said that when he found her, the marking was glowing.

He thought it was some strange spell and had specially asked someone to examine it. The result was—

“Innate,” the examining doctor had said at the time.

“Not magic, not a curse. It’s just grown into her skin. Like some kind of… imprint.”

An imprint—one whose origins even she didn’t know.

Xuan Xi sighed, brushed aside the stray hairs on her forehead, and partially covered the two lines of the marking.

Today was her official first day of school. Her course schedule listed a basic theory class in the Lecture Hall of the Main Building. She didn’t know if Sigrdrífa would be taking the same class; she didn’t even know what else Sigrdrífa was studying besides “Lightning-Fire Element.”

They were roommates now, but only roommates—at least for today.

The academy’s Cafeteria was built along the central axis of the main campus, a huge domed building adorned with murals of dragon heroes from past generations.

At breakfast time, the cafeteria was packed with new students, a chaotic mix of dragons in various forms and human shapes, as noisy as a bustling market.

Xuan Xi carried a tray, struggling to make her way through the crowd, searching for an empty seat.

On her tray were a few slices of toast, a small bowl of jam, a glass of milk, and—a dish of some dark paste she didn’t recognize.

She had grabbed it thinking it was chocolate sauce, but after tasting it, she found it was some kind of salty soybean product.

The flavor was hard to describe.

“If you want to know what that is,” a voice came from behind her, “it’s Butterfly Pea Paste. A traditional Western Dragon breakfast. Very nutritious, but the taste really isn’t great.”

Xuan Xi turned around.

A dragon girl with short brown hair was smiling at her.

She had a few freckles on her cheeks and deep green eyes, giving her the look of a large canine.

“You are?” Xuan Xi asked.

“Elsa Ash.” The girl set her tray aside and naturally sat down across from Xuan Xi.

“A-rank bloodline, Fire Element. I live on the same floor as you, Room 402. I noticed you in the hallway yesterday—your hair color is so pretty. Is it dyed?”

“…It’s natural.”

“Wow, then your bloodline must be really special!” Elsa’s eyes lit up. “I thought it might be some kind of hybrid. By the way, which family are you from? I’ve never seen a dragon who looks like you.”

Xuan Xi hesitated for a second. The bloodline field on her identity papers was blank—a very sensitive issue.

In the Western Dragon Domain, bloodline determined everything in most cases. No bloodline meant no lineage, no background, no backing.

But Elsa didn’t seem like the type to care about such things.

“I don’t have a family,” Xuan Xi said. “I’m just a foster daughter of the Hellas family.”

Elsa blinked, then let out an exaggerated “Oh.”

“That’s even cooler!” Her voice didn’t lower; if anything, it got louder.

“Self-made dragons are the best! Let me tell you, my family is also a small one—not even ranked. But my sister said if I can make it into the top hundred at the academy, our family can—”

She stopped mid-sentence.

Her gaze fell on something behind Xuan Xi, and her expression shifted from excitement to fear.

“You, y-you behind you—” she whispered, her fingers trembling slightly.

Xuan Xi turned to find Sigrdrífa standing about three meters behind her, holding a tray, expressionlessly staring at Elsa.

That gaze was as cold as if she were looking at a stone.

Elsa’s face went pale. “Uh, I, I gotta go—I forgot I have an early class today! Bye!”

With that, she grabbed her tray and ran off, as fast as if her tail were on fire.

Xuan Xi: “…”

She looked up at Sigrdrífa. The silver-haired dragoness had already withdrawn her gaze from Elsa, scanned the empty seat across from Xuan Xi with a blank face, then carried her tray to the farthest corner of the cafeteria.

That seat was by the window, with no one else nearby—completely isolated.

Xuan Xi watched her back and suddenly felt a strange pang.

Not because Sigrdrífa had scared off her new friend—well, a little—but more because of another feeling.

She remembered her days in the Border Town.

Back then, she also had no friends. Not because she was as intimidating as Sigrdrífa, but because she was different from everyone else.

She had tried to make friends, tried to fit in with the Western Dragon children, but every attempt ended in failure.

Not because she was difficult to get along with, but because—in those children’s eyes, she was always an outsider.

“Why don’t you have wings?” “Why is your scale color like that?” “What’s your bloodline?” “You don’t belong here.”

These questions were never spoken directly, but they were written in their eyes. Xuan Xi had seen too many pairs of eyes like that.

She withdrew her gaze, lowered her head, pushed the dish of Butterfly Pea Paste aside, and continued munching on her toast.

The first class was in the Lecture Hall of the Main Building. When Xuan Xi arrived, the hall was already more than half full.

She looked around, hoping to find an inconspicuous spot, but all the corner seats were taken—only the middle rows and a few front seats remained.

She chose a seat slightly to the right of center. Just as she sat down, someone came beside her.

“Is this seat taken?”

Xuan Xi looked up. It was a tall dragon girl with light golden hair and a very pretty face, but she carried a kind of… distance that Xuan Xi couldn’t quite name? No, not distance—more like the ease of someone who knew she was beautiful and didn’t care what others thought.

“No,” Xuan Xi said.

The golden-haired girl sat down gracefully.

After sitting, she glanced at Xuan Xi, then politely looked away.

“Are you a new student?” she asked.

“…Yes.”

“Me too.” The golden-haired girl gave a slight smile.

“Viralis Frostmark. A collateral branch of the Frostmark family. A-rank Ice Element.”

This was already the second person to actively strike up a conversation with her today.

Xuan Xi didn’t know if it was because she looked friendly or because she looked easy to pick on.

“Xuan Xi Hellas,” she returned with a name, omitting her bloodline and rank.

Viralis didn’t press further. She nodded politely, then opened a thick textbook.

Xuan Xi breathed a sigh of relief. It seemed not everyone was as outgoing as Elsa. Viralis’s courteous, reserved manner was more comfortable for her.

No need to explain her origins, no need to face curious or scrutinizing gazes—just two strangers sitting together, nothing more.

Soon, the class bell rang. The teacher who walked in was a Western Dragon who looked very old.

In human form, his beard was long enough to be a scarf, and his steps were slow, but his voice was remarkably loud.

“Greetings, new students.” He stood at the podium, his gaze sweeping across every face in the Lecture Hall.

“Welcome to Dragonborn Academy. I am Aldus Ironspine, your Basic Theory instructor.”

He wrote a few words in the air with flames, which hung suspended, not dissipating for a long time.

“First lesson,” Aldus said. “The history of the Dragon race.”

For the next hour, Xuan Xi listened very intently.

Aldus spoke not only of ordinary dragon history but also of the relationship between the Eastern and Western Dragons. From their common origin in ancient times, to later division and opposition, to the isolation and non-aggression of the past three hundred years.

“Three hundred years ago, a great war broke out between the Eastern and Western Dragons.” Aldus’s voice was low and slow.

“The cause of that war is no longer verifiable. All we know is that both sides suffered heavy losses. After the war, the Eastern Dragon Domain closed off the passage to the West, and the two races have gone their separate ways ever since.”

He paused, his gaze sweeping over a few spots in the Lecture Hall with deliberate carelessness.

“Of course, some say the truth of that war was covered up. Others say it was actually a joint effort by East and West to fight against an even greater enemy. But these are all legends—no solid evidence.”

When Xuan Xi heard this, she unconsciously frowned.

Three hundred years ago… that time period felt familiar somehow.

As she was thinking, her peripheral vision caught a change in a seat at the front.

Sigrdrífa was sitting in the frontmost corner of the Lecture Hall. From Xuan Xi’s angle, she could only see her silver hair and a sliver of her profile.

At that moment, Sigrdrífa turned her head slightly, as if looking at something, and then—her gaze met Xuan Xi’s.

Across half the classroom, past dozens of students, those amethyst eyes and amber-gold eyes intersected in the air for less than a second.

Then Sigrdrífa looked away, facing the podium again, her back straight as if nothing had happened.

But a strange ripple stirred in Xuan Xi’s heart.

In that brief instant just now, she felt that Sigrdrífa’s eyes were a little different from yesterday.

Not cold, not distant—more like… hesitation?

But she wasn’t sure.

After class, Xuan Xi didn’t rush to leave. She jotted down a few key points from Aldus’s lecture, organized her notes, and then stood up.

Viralis had already left at some point, without even a goodbye.

Xuan Xi didn’t mind. After all, they had only happened to sit together—it wasn’t like they were friends.

She walked out of the Lecture Hall and found the hallway nearly empty. She checked her watch—still an hour until the next class, enough time to go back to the dorm to get a book.

She returned to the Dormitory Building, went upstairs, and stood before Room 404. Just as she pulled out her key, the door opened from the inside.

Sigrdrífa stood in the doorway, holding a book, looking as if she was about to leave.

They stood face to face, less than a meter apart.

Only then did Xuan Xi notice that Sigrdrífa was half a head taller than her.

“I came to get a book,” Xuan Xi said first.

Sigrdrífa nodded and stepped aside.

Xuan Xi entered the room, picked up Introduction to Dragon Element Theory from the desk, and turned to leave.

At the door, she hesitated, then stopped.

“Hey…” she said.

Sigrdrífa stood in the hallway, watching her.

“That girl this morning, Elsa,” Xuan Xi said. “She’s not a bad person. Just talks a lot. You don’t need to… scare her.”

Sigrdrífa was silent for two seconds. “I didn’t scare her,” she said.

“Just standing in front of her and staring at her expressionlessly is scary enough.”

Another two seconds of silence.

“Because she took my seat,” Sigrdrífa said.

Xuan Xi froze.

“…What?”

“In the cafeteria, the seat she was sitting in—according to the academy’s traditional custom, it’s first come, first served.” Sigrdrífa’s tone was as flat as if she were reciting a textbook. “I got there before her, but she took my seat.”

Xuan Xi opened her mouth, momentarily lost for words.

So this morning, you stood three meters behind me holding a tray and stared expressionlessly at Elsa because—she took your seat?

That’s too…

“Then why didn’t you just say it?” Xuan Xi couldn’t help asking.

Sigrdrífa looked at her, her amethyst eyes expressionless.

“Because it wasn’t necessary, and I couldn’t be bothered to say it.” After speaking, she walked around Xuan Xi and headed down the hallway. Her pace was unhurried, her silver-white hair swaying gently behind her, and she soon disappeared around the stairwell.

Xuan Xi stood at the door, the book in her hand, not moving for a long time.

After a while, she took a deep breath and closed the door.

She leaned against the door panel, staring at the empty room, replaying the conversation in her mind over and over.

Not because she was thinking about how illogical Sigrdrífa’s reasoning was—well, partly—but more because she was thinking about something else.

“She took my seat.”

That meant Sigrdrífa had originally planned to sit across from her? But in the end, she didn’t sit down. Just like yesterday, when she had reminded her to put away the knife—she could have ignored it, but she still said it.

Xuan Xi suddenly felt that this aloof young lady wasn’t as cold as she appeared.